Uluru/ Red Centre travel guide

Alice Springs, Macdonnell Ranges etc: Australia's Northern Territory

© David Whitley

Feb 25, 2007

If you travel to the Red Centre of Central Australia, there's no excuse for being bored, as there is plenty to keep you occupied, including...

Alice Springs

• View the sunset from the top of Anzac Hill.
• Get arty in the Cultural Precinct. Try 08 8951 1120.
• Visit the Royal Flying Doctors Base, and give the chaps a round of applause when you learn about their outback life-saving heroics. Try 08 8952 1129.
• Learn about the Red Centre’s plants and wildlife at the Alice Springs Desert Park. Try 08 8951 8788.
• Ride a camel at the Frontier Camel Farm. Try 08 8953 0444.
• Go hot air ballooning over the town and MacDonnell Ranges. Try Outback Ballooning (1800 809 790).
• Spook yourself at the mining ghost town of Arltunga. Try Ossie’s 4WD Adventures (08 8952 2308).
• Be part of the fun at the annual Henley-on-Todd Regatta. Try 08 8955 0284.

West Of Alice

• Take in the palms and staircases of the Garden Of Eden in Kings Canyon. Try Wayward Bus (1300 653 510).
• Whilst doing the two hour Kings Canyon rim walk, traipse through the giant domes of the Lost City. Try Wayward Bus (1300 653 510).
• If you want to go against the wishes of the local people and owners, climb Uluru. If you have a heart attack, you probably deserve it, mind. Try Adventure Tours Australia (08 8936 1300).
• Take on the nine metre walk around the artist formerly known as Ayers Rock. Try Discovery Ecotours (08 8956 2563)
• Don’t mistake Mt Conner for Uluru, but give it a look anyway. Try Sahara (1800 806 240)
• Watch the sun set over Uluru, and prepare to gasp. Try Wayoutback (1300 551 510)
• Learn about the Dreamtime and the importance of The Rock at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre. Try (08 8956 1128)
• Walk through the Valley of the Winds and see the massive boulders of Kata-Tjuta. Try Sahara (1800 806 240)
• Witness the remnants of an attack from space at the Henbury Meteorite Craters. Try Swagabout Tours (0408 845 378)

The MacDonnell Ranges

• Visit the sacred site of Emily Gap, in the East MacDonnell Ranges, a deep waterhole where the ancestral beings of Alice springs originated. Try Emu Run (08) 8953 7057)
• Camp at the colourful Trephina Gorge Nature Park where you’ll see
• spectacular scenery and wildlife. Try Emu Run (08 8953 7057)
• Keep a lookout for the fantastically adorned roadside shrine on the south side of the Ross Highway.
• Draw your cameras at noon in Standley Chasm, probably the most breathtaking, and narrow gap around Alice Springs. Try Alice Wanderer (1800 722 111).
• Get the boardies or bikinis on for a swim in Ellery Creek Big Hole on Namatjira Drive. Try Alice Wanderer (1800 722 111).
• See the Ochre Pits, just off Namatjira Drive, used as paints by Aboriginal people. Try Alice Wanderer (1800 722 111).

South Of Alice

• Wow yourself at the natural wonders at Palm Valley in Finke Gorge National
• Park. Try Wayoutback Desert Safaris (08 8952 4324).
• Check out names and visit dates of early explorers at the eerie Chambers Pillar. Try Ossie’s 4WD Adventures (08 8952 2308).
• Find yourself at Australia’s most central point at Lambert Centre. Try Ossie’s 4WD Adventures (08 8952 2308).
• Bask amongst sandstone cliffs, take in a superb sunset and forget the tourists at Rainbow Valley Conservation Reserve. Try Wayward Bus (1300 653 510).

Tennant Creek

• Scratch your head at the massive Devil’s Marbles boulders. Try Adventure Tours Australia (08 8936 1300).
• Have a picnic and a plunge in the water at Mary Ann Dam.
• Learn about bush tucker and wash down a witchetty grub with billy tea and damper. Try Kraut Downs Station (08 8962 2820)
• Pass through Ti Tree and pick up a quality didgeridoo or Aboriginal art at Red Sand. Try Wayward Bus (1300 653 510).

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