We arrived in Sydney on a late Sunday afternoon. We had a room booked at the Autograph Collection at Pier One Harbour. However, I had the right date but the wrong month!

Marriott did a nice job of accommodating us using the same amount of reward points…and what a hotel! We loved it. A little bit of luxury thanks to all the business travel I did for more than 31 years. Champagne upon check-in, great breakfast, great service!

We also had a bonus. Sydney was right in the middle of Vivid Sydney, a light and music technology festival. We were able to see some incredible light displays, including a minute by minute changing display at the famous opera house and a harbour bridge lit in rainbow colors in memoriam to the Orlando shooting victims.

We walked along the Sydney neighborhood of Barangaroo which has major business, residential, cultural and recreational development occurring.  The area along the harbour was formerly focused on docklands and shipping. It reminded us a bit of the Chicago’s Navy Pier and near south atmosphere, with waterfront restaurants, parks and condos. We stopped for a drink before venturing on to more Vivid activities.

We ended up eating dinner at the 678 Korean BBQ. This was an excellent dinner where you cook selected meats, seafood and vegetables in the middle of your table at a charcoal grill, each table having its own. Served with every meal are a lot of vegetables including kimchi and bok choy. This is near the Surrey Hills neighborhood where we will be staying when we return to Sydney for the month of September. I may be back here once a week for dinner!

After a very early rise and breakfast we were off to the Sydney airport for the flight to Ayers Rock. There was interesting scenery along the way. Upon approach we had a great view of Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas)!

The town of Ayers Rock is basically a few lodges, caravan – camping park, grocery, fuel and a couple of restaurants formed around a circle. After checking into the lodge, some lunch and a grocery visit, we made the sunset pilgrimage to Uluru, one of Australia’s most recognizable landmarks.  It is also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We arrived about one hour prior to sunset (with all of the flies as well!). Folks were setting up their cameras as well as their happy hour cocktails or wine.

The enormous red rock across the plain certainly delivered. The sight was absolutely stunning. Uluru absolutely glows in an orange-red around sunset. We made it back to our lodge in town a bit after sunset for a cold brew, some wine, dinner and some decent acoustic music.

We had another early rise, this time 5:45am to get to the Uluru sunrise lookout point for a 7:29 am sunrise. We did not think the display of the backside was nearly as spectacular as the prior evening, different of course.

After some coffee at the cultural center, we enjoyed a two hour ranger walk around part of Uluru. We had a great guide, Peter, a local native that taught us much about the land and culture…and the importance of treating his “home” with respect. Peter was a great storyteller and the most humble person.

Uluru and its formations are so beautiful, with their colors, caves, gorges, waterholes and vegetation. This place is rich with history, an incredible place to visit and important to preserve. We decided not to climb Uluru out of respect for the site and my knees!

Just prior to sunset we went to the other incredible rock formation in the area, the Olgas.  They are also visible for miles and miles away. As opposed to one large formation, this 700 million plus year old formation, has been eroded into an enormous set of boulders. The sunset was supposed to reveal the incredible red glowing colors we saw the night before at Uluru.  However, we had a mostly cloudy sunset so we did not get the illumination we had the night before. But it was still beautiful and majestic.

Ayers Rock to Kings Canyon

We made the 375 km drive across the Red Centre…it was not as desert like as we thought it would be. Mostly flat red rock with sparse trees and grass and only one petrol station all the way to Kings Canyon which we accidentally passed. We did pass Mt. Conner off on the distance. It was probably a 100 kilometers from the road but it was an enormous monolith.

Just about 20 km before Kings Canyon Resort we came to Kings Canyon Station, basically a petrol station, small cafe, some livestock and camels for rides and safaris across the outback. We stopped in for lunch and both went for the beef burgers. Our choices were either camel, beef, chicken, kangaroo or veggie.

After a couple of pics of the camels and resident cockatoo we drove on about 20 minutes to Kings Canyon Resort, passing the massive rock formations and canyons that rise above the plains. Kings Canyon Resort is smaller than Ayers Rock, basically holiday – caravan park, nice motel, a petrol station, small limited general store, cafe, BBQ, and a small bar.

We caught up on laundry in the afternoon, had a power nap and were on our way to watch the sunset against Kings Canyon from the lookout. The lookout is a nice spot. The resort sets up a temporary bar for the sunset. The skies were mostly cloudy even with some lightning and rain off in the distance so we did not get the bright red illumination of the canyon. It was still a beautiful view and evening!

After sunset we enjoyed the BBQ, salad bar, some Shiraz and a bit of live acoustic music from singer/songwriter Rod Dowsett…a great storyteller!  Off to bed early for the 3 plus hour canyon rim walk in the morning!

Kings Canyon Rim Walk

The resort is nice and quiet, seems like not many guests. It could have been the hour. We headed to breakfast at 6:45 am before sunrise. After a nice buffet breakfast at Carmichael’s we made the short drive over to the start of the walk just before the 7:30 am sunrise.

We felt pretty good since we didn’t do any hiking yesterday but we had a 500 plus step up to the top of the canyon at the start of the trek. Our trekking poles have been lifesavers, or at least knee savers and they helped us to the top.

The scenery of this hike was spectacular, again confirming without a doubt that we made the right choice to visit Australia’s remote Red Centre. The sandstone rock formations created over millions of years from the sea, the rivers, lakes and erosion is amazing. Perhaps not as “grand” as the Grand Canyon, but the lack of masses of people here add to its grandeur.

The hike winds through the canyon with beautiful views within the canyon itself such as the “Garden of Eden” and outside the canyon and the plains below. The hike is just over 6 km and took us just over three and a half hours with all of the picture taking! It is not very strenuous after the first 500 steps but some up and down across the rocks.

The air was crystal clear and skies a deep blue. The contrasting colors of the red – orange rocks, blue skies, and plants and trees made for outstanding pics!

We met a couple on the hike that lived near the Murray River in South Australia. They had a great wombat story from one of their friends. Wombats like to scratch their backs. They heard a noise in the middle of the night but couldn’t find anything. When they got in their car the next day they had no brakes. They thought someone had cut their brake line. When they were able to find someone to take a look at it, they discovered clumps of wombat hair on the brake line!

After the rim walk, we returned to the resort for lunch at the cafe and a rest in our comfortable cabin before heading out to view sunset against the canyon. With far fewer clouds this evening we witnessed a beautiful canyon sunset.

Kings Canyon to Alice Springs

This day’s journey to Alice Springs is a 475 km, five hour drive, across the Red Centre. There is a “shortcut” across unsealed roads and what we are told are more area highlights at Palm Valley, but our rental contract forbids us from taking some of these roads. These roads are often times challenging due to flooding and there is no cell service.

When we checked out we saw a behemoth all terrain vehicle. It was a German couple that had it made to their specifications…unique – the only one in the world. It is an 11 ton vehicle that they drove across South Africa and then had it shipped to Australia for a tour across the country. Our vehicle is not so well equipped, so we took the longer sealed road route to Alice Springs.

About halfway through the 475 km trip we stopped at one of the only two stations along the way. This one happened to have cell service which has been non-existent. Our message notifications started going off. We learned from our Airbnb host that due to significant flooding in Alice Springs her guest house was not habitable. They had nearly a foot of hail that filled the river beds that are usually dry and flooded streets, homes, hotels and restaurants in the area.

We found a hotel with a room. It was a day later and they still had a pile of ice covering a drive. Apparently the guests were even helping the day before to help reduce the impacts of the hail and flooding. We walked around town that evening as the water was receding and the smell of eucalyptus was in the air from the broken branches and leaves scattered around.

The next morning we traded in our Hyundai Accent for a Toyota 4 wheel drive and made the 100 km trek out to Palm Valley. The last 20 km or so required a 4 wheel drive due to the sandy rocky roads and the river beds. We forded four or five streams that would have sunk the Hyundai!

We did the Mpaara walk, a 5 km two hour loop. The walk travels along a river bed that had water due to the rains. Up a bit from the river bed were what they call a grove of cabbage palms, perhaps a dozen 80 foot or taller. As you walk the corner of a red stone ridge it opens up into an enormous natural amphitheater. When we started the hike we did not realize we would be hiking to the top of the ridges surrounding the amphitheater. If we had known that we were going to hike the ridges, I am not sure we would have embarked!

But the walk was surprisingly not too difficult on the way up. As we traversed over the top of the ridge down to another valley with incredible rock formations among a vast plain, the cliffs became a bit steep so we proceeded with caution!

This was well worth the trip out from Alice Springs. We also saw some wild horses along the way…both dead and alive! Some wild dogs were helping themselves to a little horse meat :(.

We had dinner Sunday evening at Hanuman, known for its Thai – Indian cuisine. Off to bed to prep for more 4 wheeling and hiking in the morning!

More Alice Springs Adventure!

After our cereal breakfast and Java, we headed to the eastern ranges today. We made it to the N’dala National Park entrance near the Ross River, about an hour from Alice Springs. One of the draws here besides the beautiful scenery and rock formations are the nearly 6,000 Aboriginal rock carvings.

Unfortunately due to the rain, the roads were closed even for 4 wheel drive vehicles. We were told by the one other vehicle we saw in the area that all he roads were closed in the area, including the one to the gold mining ghost town of Arltunga.  We decided to make the 30 km plus trek on the unsealed road anyway. We made it through several “floodways” as much of the water across them had receded to passable depths. This just left some rocky roads and sandy crossings mostly.

The ghost town of Arltunga has a history dating back to 1887.  There is an abandoned police station, hotel, government buildings, remnants of rock huts, old mine openings and a couple of cemeteries.

We hiked to Joker Gorge and the Joker Gorge mine entrance. The mine entrance is 150 m up a hill. It is hard to imagine the miners trekking up those hills every day. Apparently 20 tons of ore only yielded 400 grams of gold, the main reason why the area folded up its tents just after the turn of the century. The base of the mine entrance was filled with water

Day 3 we woke with the idea of doing the Alice Springs walking tour but it was booked. So we dieseled up and headed out to the west McDonnell ranges. First stop – Ellery Creek Big Hole (honest). This was a very short walk to a water hole. The water hike looking back into the chasm was beautiful with the reflections of the cliff off the water.

Next stop, Serpentine Gorge. It is about a one km walk to the water hole and view up to the top of the gorge. However, we saw a fork in the road and took it. Up the cliff, hundreds of steps to the top of the gorge and a view across both the north and south. Probably worth it, but wish I had newer knees!

It was nearing lunch so we drove out near the far western end of the ranges to Glen Helen Gorge. This is the only stop that had a pub / cafe. The Glen Helen Homestead and Lodge glenhelen.com.au has a history dating back to 1905 and has literally weathered many storms. The beautiful gorge and Finke River are the backdrop to the homestead. I enjoyed a camel burger and Tracey had a salad. Afterward we walked out to the river and gorge for some pics.

The road continues on westward back toward Kings Canyon, 225 km on unsealed 4 wheel drive only. We headed back east to Alice Springs for our last night there, making one last stop at the Ochre Pits. Ochre has been used since prehistoric times for decoration and painting.  The ochre here has been used by the indigenous people for thousands of years.

The Red Centre is a place we almost did not do because of its distance and expense. We are so glad we included this incredible, beautiful place in our “living around the world” journey! Not to be missed!!