The Traveller's Table: Hello Northern Territory... Alice Springs, Ayers Rock, The Olga’s and the centre of Australia!

It was a little over 1000km from Davenport to Alice Springs. Heading west from Boulia across the unsealed Plenty Highway, an overnight stay on the Marshall River, we finally made it.

People assure us Alice Springs has come along way in the last few years, but let me tell you it has a long way to go! Just to be clear, I am not going to talk too much about how irritated i was by the untidiness of the town, the persons greeting us on the street and in the Todd River on our arrival. I would be on my soapbox for hours. Let it be said that i was disappointed that many international and local tourists visit this area and take away a very poor view of what Australians and life in the outback is like. In my view, no matter what the colour of a persons skin, the behaviour displayed and the way of living in these communities shouldn’t be tolerated. Our politicians should visit these communities to see where our money is being wasted!

Now that i have that out of my system, the landscape surrounding Alice Springs is amazing. We followed the Harts Ranges on our way towards Alice and had views to the West MacDonnell Ranges once we arrived. Expecting to see “The Red Centre” we were amazed by how green the landscape was. With a much higher than average annual rainfall we were truly lucky to see the country coming to life. In fact the red centre was now green!

On arrival we treated ourselves to lunch at Bojangles in Alice. I would highly recommend a visit here. Not for the food but for the history and memorabilia. A saloon style bar and bistro, saddles for bar stools, boots walking on the roof, knick knacks and memorabilia from wall to wall, I didn’t know where to look first. Moving with the times, Bo’s has an interactive website where friends can log on 24/7 and see who’s in the pub drinking and even shout you a beer online!

We set up camp at a simple caravan park on the outskirts of town giving us a few days to stock up on food and warm clothes before heading to Ayers Rock. The nights were freezing and we were greatful I had purchased warm coats for Bear & Xena before leaving Davenport.

Excited to see the not so red centre, we travelled through the stunning West MacDonnell Ranges and visited Simpson’s Gap. We decided not to visit Standley Chasm as we had to pay to enter. (Don’t get me started on having to pay to enter our own National Parks.... it’s quite common in the NT) Instead of travelling through the entire West MacDonnell Ranges we decided to turn off and take the road through Hermannsburg to visit the advertised home of Albert Namajira and an early mission. I thought the history would be interesting, and it probably was, but on driving into the small community we soon turned around and drove back out. We first had to gain a permit to drive on the road to Kings Canyon and then we stopped at the home of Albert Namajira just outside of town. It was a disgrace, it appeared the local people didn’t even respect their own history, a real disappointment. Don’t waste your time visiting this small town... see the ranges like we should have.

Things were looking up the further from Alice Springs we travelled. We arrived at Kings Canyon Resort for an overnight stay and the park was amazing and dog friendly. Kings Canyon is beautiful and well worth the visit. With a little encouragement from Ben we took the 6.5km rim walk, a little tough, especially the stairs climbing to the top of the rim, but well worth it. The view from all sides was different and equally spectacular. It is a National Park so the dogs couldn’t join us for the walk, although Xena the little rock hopper would have liked to. The great thing was that the dogs were allowed to stay with the car in the parking area while we did the walk.

Moving along it was on to Ayers Rock Resort today. The drive is spectacular, i didn’t expect all of the hills and ranges but more flat desert plains. We stopped at the look out for Mount Connor on the way... I am not sure why this doesn’t get more of a mention, at first sight i thought it was Ayers Rock! We were able to stay at Ayers Rock Resort with the dogs too which was great. They babysat the camper while we played the tourist.

Day 1 at Ayers Rock the climb to the top was closed so we opted to go to the Olga’s. I found these much more spectacular than Ayers Rock. Again, we chose to do the long 7km walk through the large boulders. The colours of the blue sky against the red rock and green landscape were breathtaking. Some of the walk was hard and steep but again well worth it. There are 2 main lookouts on the walk, most people travel to the first and then return but they really miss out. The second lookout is spectacular and a great place to catch your breath.

Day 2 was Ayers Rocks turn. Much to Ben’s excitement they opened the climb just as we arrived. A combination of a headache, aching muscles from the previous 2 days walks and freaking out about heights stopped me from making the climb. Ben tackled it head on of course and I joined him for the first small section. Words couldn’t describe the steep climb that just seems to keep going and going. Although i was left disappointed not completing the climb, I wouldn’t have met our new friends Stuart & Ruth if i had. Waiting for Ben at the bottom of the climb I got talking to Stuart waiting for his wife Ruth to return from the walk and we’ve shared a few drinks and alot of stories since then!

Day 3 we were back to the rock in the morning, we missed out on exquisite sunrise and sunsets due to heavy cloud. Instead we took a walk around the rock and viewed some fascinating Aboriginal artwork. All good things must come to an end as they say, so today we pack up and head to Finke!