The Red Centre

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Alice Springs is a large town in the outback situated in the centre of Australia. It is in the Northern Territory region and owned by native Aboriginal people. Alice Springs has a strange feel to it. The aboriginal people are distinct looking, they have dark skin and ginger hair and enjoy sitting around on the streets, which to be honest, seems to make the white people walking around feel a bit uncomfortable. Their culture is vastly different from the white Australian's, and of course the Aboriginals feel the white man stole and pillaged their land; this all leads to a lot of racial divide. The Australian government gave the land around Alice Springs back to the Aboriginal people in 1985 and now they charge people to drive on certain surrounding areas, notably the route to Ayers Rock.

When Kate and I arrived at the Melbourne, Tullamarine airport we were flying with Tiger Airways, a cheap EasyJet sort of airline. They were strict on the hand luggage we brought so instead of paying the $45 for the extra 2kgs of weight, we each put on about 4 layers of clothing and lined our pockets with heavy books and things so as to check in- rediculous but funny!

We eventually arrived at 9am in Alice Springs airport and got a lift to the van rental place. We rented another Toyota Hi-Ace camper van but this one was a newer model. The interior was more modern and had more storage space. It had a CD player this time and the van was a lot more comfortable to drive too, the clutch worked a lot better and the gear lever didnt get stuck between 1st and 2nd- bonus!

Down the road from Alice Springs we drove to the top of Anzac Hill which had great views of the town and surrounding area. This part of Australia is known as the Red Centre because it's very dry and covered in red sand. What we saw, however, was slightly different from pictures. The rivers that are normally dry had some water in, and the red sand and baron landscape had greenery on; the place had seen a lot of rain in the last few weeks.

Further down the road is the historic telegraph outpost that first relayed messages from Australia to the rest of the world. Back in the 1870's they build an overland telegraph line from Australia all the way to England. Even up until 1932 people living in the Alice Springs area had to collect their mail or post a letter from this station.

Upon leaving the telegraph station I spotted a leaflet for hot air balloon rides at dawn. Since neither of us had done this before i booked it and at 5am the following morning we were collected from McDonald's car park and driven out to the desert. The huge balloons were inflated and we climbed aboard for a truly memorable experience. I think it was only then that we became aware of the breathtaking landscape of the region. A solitary road runs along between barron land covered in red sand and cacti. Kangaroos can be seen hopping across the sand and in the distance there are mountain ranges and large sand dunes.
The balloon glided across the vast wilderness for an hour as we watched the sunrise in the distance. What a way to start the day!

At the end of the ride there were some stereotypical essex girls, clearly still pissed from the night before, which made trying to fit the deflated balloon back into a storage bag rather entertaining.

After the balloon ride we decided to begin the long journey onwards to Ayers Rock, some 270 miles away. Our first stop, west of Alice Springs was the Macdonnell Ranges. We found a beautiful spot called Simpson's Gap (see pic) and had a short break before continuing the drive.

We were riding in a camper van but many chose the option of renting a 4x4 so they could drive across the unsealed dirt roads and get a true sense of the outback. We felt our driving skills and our Toyota Hi-Ace were up to the job so we took her off road for about a 200km stretch along Larapinta Drive and Red Centre Way. There was a lot of shaking and rattling around, many bugs splattered on the windscreen and a few wheel spins on the sand but we made it and it was really fun. All credit goes to Kate for her amazing driving; she drove us the whole bumpy way past all the "Caravans not recommended" signs. I offered to take over but she was determined to drive it all herself. It must have been Jack Johnson's singing that inspired her to push for the finish! "Good on ya mate!" as the Aussies would say.

We moved the caravan comfortably back onto the sealed tarmac roads and headed further south to King's Creek where we set up camp for the evening. We briefly visited Kings Creek in the morning which is a large red stone chasm with stunning views.

A further 150km down the road we reached the Ayers Rock campsite region, we had to camp because the Aboriginal people wouldnt allow parking at the side the road for free. In the information centre we looked at what to do in the little amount of time before we had to return for our flight. We found there was a helicopter flight that went over and around Ayers Rock as well as The Olgas, another natural land formation a few miles away. We booked it an hour before it left so we were really excited straight away. Its the first time either of us have been in a helicopter, it was a surprisingly smooth ride. It didnt feel very fast but we were moving at a ground speed of 100mph as we cruised over Ayers Rock and onto the Olgas. Again the landscape was very green compared to what we expected from pictures.

Ayers Rock itself is a very sacred place for the Aboriginal people; according to Wikipedia (source of all knowledge)-

"There are a number of differing accounts given, by outsiders, of Aboriginal ancestral stories for the origins of Uluru and its many cracks and fissures. One such account, taken from Robert Layton's (1989) ULURU: An Aboriginal history of Ayers Rock, reads as follows:

Uluru was built up during the creation period by two boys who played in the mud after rain. When they had finished their game they travelled south to Wiputa ..Fighting together, the two boys made their way to the table topped Mount Conner, on top of which their bodies are preserved as boulders

Two other accounts are given in Norbert Brockman's (1997) Encyclopedia of Sacred Places. The first tells of serpent beings who waged many wars around Uluru, scarring the rock. The second tells of two tribes of ancestral spirits who were invited to a feast, but were distracted by the beautiful Sleepy Lizard Women and did not show up. In response, the angry hosts sang evil into a mud sculpture that came to life as the dingo. There followed a great battle, which ended in the deaths of the leaders of both tribes. The earth itself rose up in grief at the bloodshed, becoming Uluru.

It is sometimes reported that those who take rocks from the formation will be cursed and suffer misfortune. There have been many instances where people who removed such rocks attempted to mail them back to various agencies in an attempt to remove the perceived curse."


The helicopter ride we took was fantastic, some amazing views. The funny thing about it was the guys that took us. The pilot had quite a shy, profession way about him and the other bloke was much younger and loved to joke around. The jokier co-pilot who came along worked for the same company but flew aeroplanes and as such they had a lot of banter about which was better: helicopters or planes.

After our chopper flight we were dropped back at the campsite and saw the sun was setting so jumped in the camper and followed it to a small side road where we sat and drank Corona's and watched it set.

The following morning i organised for us to do a Camel ride at sunrise. We woke at 5am and it was a nice chilled way to start the day, camels are a lot less comfortable to ride than horses and many have bad temperaments. Ours were friendly enough, but it was just the getting on as they were sitting and then leaning back as they stood up that was a bit strange. Each camel had a nose ring with a rope attached that the trainer could lead them with. When Kate threw her leg over to sit on one, she kicked the rope attached to his nose which made him give out a whimper, poor thing. Back at the ranch they had a history of camels in Australia. Thousands were imported between 1840 and 1907 to open up the arid areas of central and western Australia. They were used for riding, and as draught and pack animals for exploration and construction of rail and telegraph lines; they were also used to supply goods to remote mines and settlements. Their numbers are currently believed to be around 20,000 (both feral and tame) and many are captured and used for local racing events.

Our brief time in the outback was coming to an end and we had a lot of ground to cover on our way back to Alice Springs. We took the tarmac roads on the return which was a lot easier (for us and the van). The tunes we had on the trip were great- Jack Johnson's En Concert, Airbourne's No Guts No Glory, Bluesfest (a compliation from a Byron Bay festival) and Kate's musician friend Matty W, with his album Castaway.

At a stop-off for petrol i spotted a 5CD compliation "The Best BBQ Album Ever" which we bought because of the great selection of singalongs, most noticably "Land Down Under"- a great tune and most appropriate for the trip!

For our last night we stayed at a campsite in the middle of nowhere that promised Dinky the Singing Dingo although we didnt see him, having time off i guess. At the reception they sold BBQ meat packages and a BBQ outside to use so i did the manly thing- donned my outback hat and put some meat on the barbie. Kate meanwhile did the lady thing and prepared couscous and salad. We combined to make a great meal to finish the trip.
Because we were in the outback there were a lot of big crickets and frogs hopping about so that made popping out to the loo in the middle of the night an interesting experience!

Back in Alice Springs we had to wash the van and return it so we took it to the carwash and gave it a good scrub and pressure hosed all the crickets, butterflies and other creatures that had left their mark. We returned the van and headed for the airport.

To think we packed all that into five days is quite a feat. I had such fun: my first helicopter ride, hot air balloon ride and sunrise camel ride to date.
Kate and I had such fun together we discussed a possible trip to Perth ten days later, but for now it was back to base in Melbourne to plan the next adventure!

Chris over and out... standby for next transmission, coming soon... hopefully.

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