Leaving the heat and humidity behind, we headed south, direction Red Centre. Had a stop in Mataranka, which is known for its natural hot springs, amazing clear water and it was beautiful to go for a dip late afternoon when it started cooling down!
Anyone who has driven to Alice Springs and Uluru would know there's not much to see during the drive, so it meant several days of driving with few stops: Devils Pepples, the bigger brother Devils Marbles and Wycliffe Well, the UFO capital of Australia - unluckily we didn't get to see any...
Arriving in Alice Springs, we had a decent climate change - going from hot and humid to cold and overcast - 15c max and down to 3c at night, so back to sleeping bags, jackets and beanies!
In town, we went to centre of the Royal Flying Doctors. We were impressed to see how many planes are in the air all the time, how many people rely on this institution. The planes they use are Pilatus PC12, a Swiss plane! After this, we went to the School of the Air, which is a school that broadcasts lessons to kids living remotely, either cattle stations or remote communities. These kids attend classes nearly as normal with a teacher present in Alice and they log on online, we were able to watch a library as well as a PE (sports) lesson for 1st and 2nd graders. The students are up to 1200km apart and only get to see each other 2-3 times a year for a get together in Alice Springs.
We drove through the MacDonnell Ranges where we saw several gorges, but also lots of wildlife including camels, dingoes and large groups of brumbies. The two white brumbies had a reddish colour, all that red dust sticks to everything!
There had been a bush fire around Kings Canyon area 4 months ago, so the landscape was burnt, and the red sand was extremely visible with no spinifex to cover it anymore. We enjoyed the canyon rim walk with it's many lookouts!
At Kata Tjuta (Olgas) we did the Valley of the Winds walk, and it truly was a cold wind coming through the valleys! But it was a beautiful walk, even though the famous red colours didn't quite come out due to the grey clouds.
The following day we headed to Uluru (Ayers Rock), another overcast and windy day, so the climb up the big rock was closed, so we went for the 10km walk around it.
Mataranka
Devils Marbles
Wycliffe Well
MacDonnell Ranges
Kings Canyon
Kata Tjuta (Olgas)
Uluru (Ayers Rock)
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