Australasia > Australia > Northern Territories > Alice Springs > Journey > Articles > Driving the Red Centre

It's like driving through an enormous sand-painting. The surface of Central Australia's Stuart Highway may be ribbon-smooth, but to each side of it are ancient red sand ridges and ochre salt pans.

The highway from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock is no longer the infamous track of yore, but its perspectives are still a humbling reminder of being a mere dot amid all this space, all this time.

Namatijira colours, mythic distances and monumental rocks ... these are the elements that make driving from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock and Kings Canyon a great adventure.

ALICE SPRINGS
"They arrive with a ten pound note and one shirt — and don't change either," said a sardonic Alice Springs publican of the first rail tourists to reach his settlement, in 1929. He wouldn't recognize the place today with its up-market hotels, restaurants, art galleries, casino and 20,000 inhabitants.

At the heart of the Red Centre and surrounded by the MacDonnell Ranges, "The Alice" is rich in both Aboriginal and European history. The desert stretches out in all directions from this oasis, allowing for plenty of day-trips to its surrounding ranges. But, the main event is 445 kilometres "down the track", the Stuart Highway.

AYERS ROCK.
From Alice, give yourself at least five hours to drive to Ayers Rock Resort, via the Stuart and Lasseter highways. Despite the good roads, there are 50-metre long "road trains", lulling horizons of endless scrub, microwave heat, suicidal 'roos and an open speed limit. Stop frequently, perhaps to examine the plants and red sands. And watch out for camels.

"Ayers Rock" or "Uluru" is the largest monolith in the world. It sits like a giant paperweight, pinning Australia to Planet Earth. Almost 10 kilometres around and 600 million years old, this arkose sandstone wonder is an overwhelming magnet for visitors.

Uluru almost calls out to be climbed — though its traditional owners, the Mutitjulu Aborigines wish that tourists wouldn't. However, now a site of secular pilgrimage for travellers from around the world, the rock is annually climbed by 200,000 people.

"Climb to the top and you've got the best possible view of nothing." warns one of the Mutitjulu men. Nevertheless, from 350 metres high the vision it allows of Australia — seemingly from coast to coast — is an awesome sight.

Not everyone undertakes the climb, but no one misses the sun setting on the rock. In the late afternoon light the colours shift constantly, from pink to blood red to mauve. Each time you turn around there's a different hue.

As well as climbing and looking, there's much to do at "The Rock", from star-gazing to Harley-Davidson motorcycle tours. Park rangers offer instructional walks, while on the "Liru Walk", Aboriginal women, skilled at "shopping'" in the desert, explain their "bush tucker" techniques.

KATA TJUTA
The Olgas or "Kata Tjuta" ("many heads") are 53 km from Ayers Rock Resort. Equally magic, and for some travellers even more spell-binding than Uluru, this maze of 36 massive sandstone domes makes a very special early morning or late afternoon excursion. (Where possible, avoid walking journeys in the Centre's high mid-day temperatures.) There is no accommodation at Kata Tjuta.

Take a one hour walk to Olga Gorge or a longer one to the beautiful Valley of the Winds. Like Uluru, the colours of Kata Tjuta at dusk fade through their own spectacular spectrum. And who was "Olga"? That explorer Ernest Giles named the largest dome, Mount Olga after — who else but…an obscure Russian duchess?

KINGS CANYON
Around 240 km drive north of Ayers Rock Resort is the stunning Kings Canyon in Watarrka National Park. This primal desert oasis surprises visitors at their every turn with its rich flora (such as grevillea and ancient cycad palms), waterfalls and dramatic 270-metre red canyon walls.

Following marked trails, you can do the one hour "Creek Walk" or the four hour "Canyon Walk" — including its thrilling cliff-top vistas. Waterholes, such as the lush Garden of Eden, deep in the gorge, are perfect for swimming.
There's a good resort at Kings Canyon, as well as a camping area. Stay overnight here before attempting the long return to Alice. Treat yourself to a barbecue dinner al fresco beneath the giant night sky — it's a "five million star restaurant".

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