A town called Alice

Alice Springs was the final stop on our road trip up the Sturt Highway.  We arrived in the township shortly after lunch on our penultimate day.  Garry dropped me at the rental car depot while he went on to return our Motorhome.  Once this chore was completed it we headed over to the Royal Flying Doctors visitor’s centre to learn more about this iconic Australian Outback service. 

The centre is well laid out.  We watched an informative movie on the service before spending an hour making our way through the centre educational exhibits.  Highlights of our visit included a live map displaying the movements of the service’s aircraft throughout Australia and the pedal-powered radios once used by Outback farmers to power their two-way radios.

We then made our way to the Alice Springs Desert Park.  This tourist attraction proved to be a genuine highlight. The park sits in the foothills of the MacDonnell Ranges that frame the surrounding area. Inside all manner of native flora and fauna is on display in series of open-air enclosures linked by meandering trails.  The complex includes several aviaries filled with more native birdlife than I’ve ever seen before.

However, the real highlight of the Desert Park would have to be its nocturnal house.  Inside we watch Bilbies, and Wallabies and all manner of desert critters go about their business.  The animals on display were simply phenomenal.  In hindsight, I wish we’d allowed more time for this impressive park. 

We then finished our day with a stop at ANZAC Hill.  We arrived just in time to witness the sun setting over the MacDonnell Ranges and the township below.

Our final day in Alice Springs was spent touring the Old Telegraph Station.  This fascinating complex was the genesis for settlement in the area.  In 1872 the Overland Telegraph Line was completed, linking Australia to the world’s growing telegraph network.  A year earlier the Alice Springs Telegraph Station had been established to house a critical repeater station for the transcontinental telegraph line.

Until 1932, the station played a vital role in maintaining Australia’s telecommunications link with the rest of the globe.  The link’s morse code messages were amplified and transmitted using power generated by 150 electrochemical batteries.  Each battery latest three months before its wet crystal contents had to be replaced.

We enjoyed a fascinating guided tour of the station; as well as an opportunity walk a section of the nearby Todd River’s dusty, desiccated riverbed.  The river is dry most of the time making for a rather unusual experience.

Our final stop in Alice Springs was Todd Mall in the town centre.  It was here that we stumbled upon the Megafauna Centre.  Wow!  What an unexpected discovery.  This modest museum houses some impressively mounted skeletons and life-size recreations of some of Australia’s extinct super-sized marsupials.  

 Exhibits include a recreation of the world’s largest bird, Dromornis, which grew to three metres tall and weighed up to 650 kg.  There’s also a fearsome mega croc and a marsupial herbivores called Plaisiodon (it looks like a giant wombat).  They all roamed the region more than 8 million years ago during the Miocene epoch.  And with that, it was off to the airport for an uneventful flight home.

Roadhouse mayhem

Our final day at the Red Centre was spent with a final morning at Uluru.  We visited a few stops we’d passed earlier on the trip including a walking track that took us right up on to the base of the rock itself.  Close up you really start to appreciate its uniquely textured surface.  We did momentarily stop to consider climbing the rock.  However, the trail was closed due to high winds at the summit.

Our final hour in Yulara was spent visiting art galleries.  We were keen to find the perfect Aboriginal artwork for our apartment.  We’d almost given up hope when we stumbled across a spectacular piece created by Justin Ronberg Japurrula.  It’s now framed and sits pride of place at the top of our internal staircase.

We then took a leisurely 247km drive back down the Lasseter Highway.  Our destination for the evening was the Eridunda Roadhouse, situated on the intersection where the Lasseter Highway meets the Sturt Highway.  It’s considered the largest Roadhouse on the Sturt Highway so we thought it’d be the ideal place for us to experience at least one night at a classic Roadhouse.

Along the way, we stopped at the Mt Connor Lookout to soak in the view of this mesa formation towering over the desert.  Mt Connor is privately owned and so, for most visitors, this is as close as you’ll ever get.  On the opposite side of the road from the lookout is a vivid red dune.  We climbed it to get a better view. At its crest, we discovered it also offered an impressive panorama of several permanently dry salt flats stretching out across the Outback.  The entire lake formation is hidden from the road by dunes.  We’d have never seen it had we not stopped and gone for a walk.

Our Roadhouse stop proved to be more of an adventure than we’d ever expected.  The experience started well.  We arrived late afternoon in time to witness our road trip’s most stunning sunset from a viewing platform built on a low hill behind the main complex.  The Roadhouse also houses a menagerie of Outback fauna including Camels, Kangaroos and Emus.  We then enjoyed a wholesome meal at the Roadhouse Diner before settling down for the night.

The following morning our Roadhouse experience took a turn for the worse.  At times it was like watching a slow-motion car crash unfold.  Almost everything that could have gone badly wrong did.  I rose early and made my way to the shower block. Inside I found every toilet was overflowing and the showers were running cold.  Needless to say, I turned and walked straight out again.

Then, as we got ready to depart the campground, I managed to lock us out of the Motorhome with the keys inside. We tried every conceivable idea to get back in with no avail. We began contemplating a call to the hire company and resigning ourselves to a lost day of travel and hundreds of dollars in callout fees.

Then, just as all hope was lost, a late-departing couple told me the maintenance guy was still on site. I’d been told earlier by a rather dopey back-packer receptionist that it was his day off. I eventually tracked him down in a nearby cabin and secured a wire coat-hanger.  Garry then worked his magic and eventually got a sliding window to open.  Even better the shower block drains had cleared and the hot water was back on tap. We finally departed the Roadhouse only hour or so behind schedule.

Glowing in the dark

Our second day in the Red Centre was spent at Kata Tjuta (formerly known as The Olgas).  When I last visited this knobby formation in 2000 the popular “Valley of the Winds” walking track had been closed due to extreme heat.  This time Garry and I were in luck.  We walked through the sculpted valleys that make up this extraordinary landmark as far as the equally spectacular Karingana Lookout before retracing our steps.

Along the way, nature put on a special show for us.  We stopped at a water station to enjoy a moment of shade. As we stood, one by one, a flock of native Zebra Finches flew in from surrounding trees to drink from puddles at the base of the water tap.  For almost 10 minutes we had the entire experience to ourselves before hikers came into view and scared the birds away. It was awesome!

That evening we booked a dinner tour that saw us enjoy canapes on top of sand dunes as the sun set over Uluru.  This was followed by dinner under the stars before spending almost an hour wandering through the Field of Lights.  Sadly, the food was a bit of a disappointment.  At least, compared to the Sounds of Silence dinner that I’d enjoyed 19 years earlier.

This artwork is impressive.  It was created as a temporary exhibit by British artist, Bruce Munro.  It consists of more than 300,000 individual components, including more than 380kms of optical fibre.  The fibres glow in the dark, progressively changing colour and lighting more 50,000 light stems spread across the desert floor.  The entire installation covers more than 40,000sqm and is powered by 36 solar panels.

Iridescent Uluru

It’s said that Uluru is Australia’s most recognised national landmark; second only in overall recognition to the Sydney Opera House.  Images of its glowing red bulk at sunset are simply Instagram heaven. The monolith sandstone formation rises from the surrounding desert without rhyme or reason.  At its highest point, Uluru is 863 metres high and has a total circumference of 9.4km.

Both Uluru and nearby Kata Tjuta have great cultural significance for the Aṉangu people, the traditional owners of the land. They consider The Rock, as its colloquially known, to be a sacred place.  They abhor climbing on the rock itself and have campaigned for decades to stop tourists climbing its northern flank. A ban on climbing was recently announced and is scheduled to finally go into force on 25 October this year,

Tourism at Uluru is a relatively recent phenomenon.  Tourists began arriving in the 1950s but their numbers remained low until the dusty desert road from Alice Springs was finally paved in the 1980s.  Today visitors are housed in a purpose-built village called Yulara, located about 20km north of the rock.  This modern, smartly-appointed village includes a series of hotels, shops, essential services and a popular campground.

I first visited the Red Centre in 2000.  Garry’s first visit was even further back.  Several decades later both of us were keen to see Uluru again and relive some old memories.  I booked us into the campground for three nights which effectively gave us almost three full days to soak in the local sights.

Our first day was spent driving around the base of Uluru with regular stops at popular sights.  This included some of the rock’s permanent water holes, caves and rock paintings. Uluru is truly captivating up close.  We then capped off the day with a spectacular helicopter flight over Kata Tjuta and Uluru at sunset, and I really mean spectacular!

The flight lasted more than 30 minutes.  Our itinerary included an unexpected flight over the permanently dry, rippling salt pans of nearby Lake Amadeus, then on to circle Kata Tjuta before spending almost 15 minutes circling the western and southern flanks of Uluru. We couldn’t believe how long the pilot lingered as the sunset slowly set.

Uluru undergoes an awe-inspiring transformation at sunset.  Its colour progressively changes into an unbelievably iridescent orange-red.  The formation literally glows.  Words simply cannot describe how stunning it looked from the air.  This perspective also allows you to witness its evening shadow slowly spread across the desert until it strikes the horizon.  These flights weren’t cheap but boy were they worth every penny!

I’ll let our photographs speak for themselves.

Endless horizons

The road between Coober Pedy and Yulara is flat, dry, barren and often runs straight as an arrow for miles.  Every online guide I’ve read recommends driving the entire 734kms in a single day.  

Garry and I took the experts at their word and spent more than eight hours making our way through the Outback.  We stopped every few hours to refuel at the occasional Roadhouse, visit local sights and stretch our legs in the middle of nowhere.

Our day on the road started with a brief stop half an hour north of Coober Pedy where the famous Dog Fence crosses the Sturt Highway.  This is the world’s longest fence.  It stretches more than 5,614 km across three states, separating native Dingo territory from pastoral sheep country.  Another tick on the bucket list.

Our next stop was the Cadney Park Roadhouse and then again at the Marla Roadhouse to see its colouful road sign marking the start of the Oodnadatta Track. From here it was on to the NT Border Sign (20km before Kulgera Roadhouse) where we stopped briefly for lunch.

Other stops along the way included Eridunda Roadhouse (which houses a flock of Emus; the only time we saw them outside of Woomera) and a brief stop to take in the view of Mt Connor, sometimes known as Foolaru because tourists often mistake it for “nearby” Uluru.

We arrived in Yulara shortly before sunset.  We set up camp ready to enjoy three sun-soaked days in the heart of the Red Centre.  Here's a final parting shot of our Deluxe Motorhome parked next to a local road train. Those trucks are huge!