It’s probably one of the first places Brits think of when picturing Australia (along with the Sydney Opera House and generic beaches) and after being in Australia for 11 months, we finally made it – The Red Centre.
We hopped off The Ghan in Alice Springs, a small town that basically served us as a gateway to Uluru, we saw a lovely sunset from the top of Anzac Hill, visited the Botanic Gardens (don’t get me wrong, I’m sure after some rain they would be beautiful but in truth, they just reflected the area outside the gardens, dry and bare) and walked to and around the Old Telegraph Station.
We hired a car and made the 3 night whistle-stop trip from Alice Springs. After an uneventful 6 hour drive, we arrived in plenty of time to soak up the heat and settle in to our accommodation in Yulara (basically a YHA in the only resort in the area located just outside the National Park ($25 per person entrance fee), before heading out to see the sun set over Uluru. As first impressions go, it was pretty good – it looks exactly as it does in the guide books (although the guidebooks don’t show you all the flies!) Our photos don’t really do it justice in terms of showing the changing light as the sun was setting.
The following morning, we woke early to set off on the Uluru base walk to ensure we returned before the mid-day heat set in. From this angle, Uluru seemed much more grand, a 10km walk around it’s base with a few Aboriginal art sites to observe on the way around, the age and history of the place really kicked in.
We headed back to the hotel for lunch and attended an astronomy seminar “How [not] to win a Nobel Prize”, it was interesting if a bit technical, it certainly tempted us to head back out after sunset to look up at the sky though…stunning! We also managed to see Venus lined up against the moon when we got up at the following morning, we tried to take a photo but our camera/crap photography really didn’t do it any justice at all…in reality it looked like something you’d see on a Christmas card, perfect starry navy blue sky and then a super bright moon and Venus).
We headed out for more walking at The Olgas…
And on our way back to Alice Springs we stopped off to complete the Rim walk at Kings Canyon (as with the rest of the walks we did while in the Red Centre, this one was closed by 11am as the forecast predicted temperatures over 36 degrees) we finished feeling rather proud of ourselves as we managed to hold our record and cut the estimated walk time in half! This walk for me was probably the most impressive, a strenuous walk with incredible landscape and views.
The grading of the walks at these sites seemed a little off, Uluru base walk was graded moderate, presumably because of it’s length as it was almost entirely flat all the way round whereas The Olgas was also moderate but although shorter, featured uneven terrain and some steeps hill sections that required decent grips on your shoes (or a run-up!) and would definitely be a struggle for some. The Kings Canyon had several walks that were graded probably more as you would expect (in terms of difficulty, although the times perhaps a little over estimated), if you didn’t feel up to the full rim walk there were other shorter options.
All in all, we had a great time in the Red Centre, a great thing to tick off the bucket list and plenty of walks to keep you entertained.
