The Red Centre

After the luxury of the Ghan we arrived in Alice Springs to 40 degrees plus. Our hotel was booked with WOTIF ( equivalent to lastminute.com) and although the room was basic we were next to the pool and had a chance to do laundry and have a look around.

Our wake up call was 5.00a.m. as we were being picked up at 5.55 for our camping trip to the Red Centre. Was this a good idea? Would we survive 40 plus degrees in a tent? Would the spiders, reptiles, searing heat finally finish us off?

Our vehicle was an offroad, air-conditioned bus. After picking up our fellow-travellers (we were happy to discover we were not the oldest ones on the trip), we set off for Uluru with several stops on the way to stretch our legs and refill the water bottles. The distance from Alice Springs to Uluru and our first camp site was around 500km and took over 6 hours. The tents were built on platforms with proper beds. There was no air conditioning but they seemed fine. We helped unload the food and store it in the enclosed kitchen which was well equipped with the very necessary large fridge freezer, fan, tables and benches.

After a quick lunch we drove to Uluru, going all the way round the rock and hearing much about it before setting out for a short walk. Although it was afternoon it was quite debilitating to walk in that heat and good supplies of water were very necessary. We then gathered with hundreds of other tourists from dozens of other coach parties at the "Sunset Viewing Site" where tables were laid out with champagne, orange juice and nibbles for us to watch the sun set on the rock. As it happened clouds intervened at the critical moments and the sunset was nowhere near as spectacular as it should have been, but it didn't seem to matter too much.

We were all in bed early as we had to get up at 4.15 to see the dawn - not a problem as we were all exhausted but some of our group were unable to sleep in the heat. We were warned that it gets cold at night but that seems to be only in the southern winter. It was probably still in the mid-thirties for us. Dawn over Kata Tjuta (formerly known as the Olgas) was much more impressive than the previous night's sunset, but nowhere near as impressive as our early morning hike through Kata Tjuta. It had to be early morning because the walks are closed from 11 a.m. on days when the temperature is forecast to go over 36 degrees. Incidentally that also meant that climbing Uluru was also banned - not a problem as our guide explained to us very clearly that, although it's not actually banned, the indigenous people don't like it and we didn't fancy it much anyway.

The rest of the day was taken up with a visit to the tourist trap - sorry resort - at Yulara, then another long drive to King's Canyon, broken by a stop to gather firewood for a campfire at our new campsite. The campfire was very sociable and the food, cooked in large cast iron pots on the campfire, was excellent.

Next morning another early start then a choice of walks at King's Canyon. One of us opted for the easier walk inside the canyon, and one of us took the more strenuous option of the spectacular Rim Walk. Finally another long drive back to Alice Springs.

The pictures in the text are, in order, gathering firewood, King's Canyon, champagne at Uluru, a perentie lizard at King's Canyon (he's about 5 feet long and not full grown), and our guide Nick cooking dinner on the campfire. Maybe someone smarter than us can figure out how to put them in the right places on an Apple computer!