Blogs from Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 5

Saturday 27th August 2016 We left Uluru this morning; we headed for Alice Springs, Mark and Helena to Kings Canyon. Mark and Helena want to drive the dirt road between Kings Canyon and Alice (The Mareenie Loop) and as we couldn't consider dragging our caravan over this we've decided to continue directly to Alice on the bitumen road, having been to King's Canyon in the past. We did meet up for morning coffee at a rest stop about 150kms up the road, before the others took the side road to the Gorge and we headed on to Erldunda, the turn-off northwards. Here we had lunch and set off up the Stuart Highway until we reached the Finke River crossing, about 120kms before Alice Springs. Several other vans were already there and we joined them on a ... read more

Geo: -23.7022, 133.887We have been regulars with AATKings but they were all booked out so we gave Emu Run a crack. It was the same itinerary, in a small bus and we did enjoy it. Our driver and guide was David, from Montreal. Last night's dinner was hosted by Zac from Quebec. Looks like the Canadians like Australia.And for anyone looking for a job there is plenty of work here in the territory. Seems that all industries are desperate for staff! There are so many young people from all around the world working here and they rave about the lifestyle.Can't see us moving here in our retirement though.The day began with continued coughs and splutters but there's no down time for tourists. This is another day on the road churning up the kilometres and getting up ... read more

Geo: -23.6975, 133.884A public holiday today and another cloudy day, in-fact its been cloudy since the beginning of our holiday. We have organised a late checkout today as we don't have much to do before boarding the Ghan at 5.00 pm tonight. We decide to take up the offer on a discounted breakfast then I need to drop my hire car off at Double Tree on Hilton. There was no rep there so I just did a key drop then caught a taxi back to the hotel.After watching a few movies we checked out and decided to go back into town so we could visit the Royal Flying Doctor Service but it was closed so we caught a taxi to Lasseters Casino to fill in a couple of hours before the Ghan baggage check was open.Having ... read more

Geo: -23.7004, 133.881This morning we check out at 9.00 am, fill the car with fuel at $1.98 per litre (is this the dearest fuel in Australia) and head towards the real Kings Canyon some 8 km out of town. The car park is full and the flies are on the war path as we don our fly nets and head of on the Creek Walk some 2.6 km. The sheer canyon walls are impressive as we hit a fork in the path.One heads towards the famous Rim Walk and the other toward the more subdued Creek Walk. Deb takes one look at the steep climb, sheer drop-offs and rickety ladder bridges and immediately chooses the Creek Walk.Its not long before we reach the end of the track, a platform with an amazing view of the highest ... read more

We stayed in Alice Springs twice; once upon arrival from the Ghan train on 23.11.15 and again on our return from the Red Centre on 28.11.15. Both were overnight stays and we stayed in the Chifley Resort Hotel on both occasions, booking the second night after being impressed with our stay on the first. It had a pool, restaurant and bar and was spacious and clean. Our second night's stay there was accompanied by loud music from a wedding party into the early hours of the morning so wasn't as good. Serves us right for breaking our own rules about not revisiting the same place! The heat we had travelled half way round the world for finally happened with the temperature reaching 38°C! Lovely. We were surprised that Alice Springs was much bigger than we expected, ... read more