Outback - Alice Springs to King's Canyon
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| The flight from Sydney was amazing in itself, from green(ish) farmland to scorched dry cattle stations to screaming red wilderness and salt pan. | ||||
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| Amazingly, as we came into Alice on Christmas Day the country became green again. Later we were told they'd had the first rain in a year and a half just a couple of weeks before - 7 inches in one day! - and as a result the desert was undergoing one of it's rare blooms. A real privilege to see plants in flower and relatively lush grassland where there should be just dry red dust and rocks. |
Our transport
for the duration, a 4WD bus.
Hang in there, Santa!
More wildlife - these are Peaceful Doves.
Clark of the desert...
And so to what we came halfway round the planet for - Uluru.
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On
26th we drove to Uluru and watched the sunset, and yes the colour really
does change. Truly breathtaking though you have to filter out the swarms
of other tourists.
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| The next day, we were up an hour before dawn (!) to bus over and catch the sunrise. Now that was really wonderful - where the sunset had been a welcome relief from truly blistering heat this was splendour rising from the hush of night. Go to see it if you ever get the chance. After the sunrise we had a tour around the rock with a local guide who explained the traditions and stories of the place, and also why you really, really shouldn't climb the rock. Very thought provoking and I came away with even more respect for the place. | ||||
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Rock art at Uluru
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| The day was rounded off perfectly by a helicopter ride, taking in Uluru, Kata Tjuta and the surrounding desert. | ||||
King's Canyon.
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This
particular little corner of paradise is a suntrap so at this time of
year you have to be out by 9am or risk cooking, but it's well worth
the effort. A climb up 450 ft to the top, then down over 3km or so of
petrified sand-dunes into a proper little Lost World where rainforest
palms and cycads grow sheltered by the Canyon, a last remnant of the
lush forest that used to cover central Australia several million years
ago. Back up to the rim of the Canyon, then precipitous steps down the
other side and it was pushing 40 C by the time we got back to the coach
at 9:30.
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