23.09.2018 | Australia, Travel

Flying to the middle of Australia – Alice Springs

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Good morning my loves. This blog post is all about Australia’s outback, the „red center“. More precisely, it’s about the flight to Alice Springs and exploring the surroundings of the city with a campervan.

Flying over the outback

This part of my journey started with a domestic flight from Sydney to Alice Springs. The view was brilliant, you can see the river landscapes near Sydney, the huge rainforests and the famous Blue Mountains national park. Slowly the green landscape fades into farmland. The colors of the fields change from green to orange until all you see is the red outback. All you can see are a few perfect straight gravel roads and some rocks rising out of the dust. The airport of Alice Springs is very small, but you will see a lot of backpackers and travelers, ready to start their adventures. A small shuttle bus will bring you to your accommodation in Alice Springs. You can get a ticket on a counter at the airport (16,5 Aus $ p.P.). The radio in the bus played Johnny Cash and there was this “desert feeling” :).

Alice Springs and the Hotel

Since we booked our camper for the next morning, we had to stay for a night in a hotel. The options in Alice Springs are limited and we ended up staying in a reasonable priced Ibis Hotel. The room was not great but did the trick (70 Aus Dollar). Next time I would rather pick up the camper on the day of arrival and get all the stuff you need, but more on that later. The hotel is situated in Alice Springs, just five minutes walk to the main shopping arcade. I don’t know if I should say Alice Springs is a town, it looks more like a village with two shopping malls. It is apparent that a lot more Aborigines live in the outback, especially in the biggest town in the middle of the outback. A few Aborigines approached me on the way to the center, sadly they often don’t look at your face. I had the feeling that they ignore the white people. But if you hear about their sad history, how everything was taken by those people, you can imagine how deep the pain feels like. The Yeperenye story and many more ancient myths, symbols and images can be found in the rich diversity of local Aboriginal art. They are living in groups together, mostly drawing beautiful pictures in the center of Alice Springs. There are a few bungalows selling art, outdoor gear and clothing. (Lots of cowboy hats as well if you are searching for one 😉 ). Unusual for this small town there are two big and modern shopping malls in the middle of the outback. But Alice Springs is a popular destination for road trips to replenish the stocks of food. Therefore you find common stores like Woolworth and Target as well. Fun fact: We asked the staff about if they have deposit bottles, the answer:  “We don´t have that. That´s just the way we are”:). But what did we thought in the middle of nowhere, because Alice Springs is really isolated. Anyway, there are a few really nice cafés and restaurants. A typical Australian apple-cinnamon muffin and a big coffee you can buy at every corner.

Hiking trail to the Telegraph Station

If you have the time, walk the beautiful path alongside a dried river bed to the former telegraph station built by the British. The hiking trail starts at the back of the town and leads through absolutely beautiful red outback along a walkway. The war memorial Anzac Hill on top of the panoramic mountain of Alice Springs is a great spot to enjoy the sunset over the outback.

Picking up our Britz camper van

Actually, we wanted to walk the way up north to the car rental by foot, but suddenly a really nice Australian man asked us to jump on. Typical for Australian lifestyle and “no worries” small talk mentality. Hurray! 🙂 In advance, we booked the smallest campervan with a little kitchen (cooker, fridge, sink) without a toilette. In addition, we decided to take the fully comprehensive insurance, in case we would have a kangaroo accident or small scratches on the windscreen. Everything worked perfect with Britz, they showed us two informative videos and told us about everything. They even advised us with the route and gave useful tips. I highly recommend buying the road book of the whole country for 20 Australian dollars. This book is really useful because there is a differentiation of four-wheel gravel roads and the paved roads. We were only allowed to take the paved roads (except for 12 kilometers to a campsite or the roads on kangaroo island). Our Campervan was pretty new with only around 30.000km. Additionally, we got camping chairs and table as well as cookware, cleaning stuff, sleeping blankets, and pillows. We were ready to go. Important: Drive on the left side!!! I highly recommend starting driving a car in the outback instead of being overwhelmed in a traffic city like Sydney.

Supplies for crossing the outback

At first, we went to Woolworth, where we spent unbelievable 240 Australian Dollars. I am talking of 4 big 1-liter water containers and lots of preserved food, fruits, vegetables, cornflakes, bread and so on. We continued our shopping to Target, where we bought cheap plastic boxes for organizing all our stuff in the car. Despite all the drawers we needed two of these for our clothes ( 12 Dollar each). We bought mosquito nets at the “Lone Dingo” store because there are lots of flies in the outback desert (just buy it!). A little outside the town you find the biggest store for camping gear named “Desert Dwellers”. They provide everything the heart is seeking. We bought a solar shower (to be honest we never used it) and a hinged mobile toilet (actually used everyday xD ). Let’s be honest, a camper without a toilet is really stressful, because you are often in areas where you haven’t the option to go.  You unfold the mobile toilet,  fix the toilet seat, clamp two extra thick garbage bags in it (purchasable at Desert Dwellers) and your problem is solved 😉 or rather it is a lifesaver xD (42 Aus Dollars for the Toilet chair, Solar Shower 10 Aus Dollar).

Desert Park of Alice Springs, our first destination

The desert park is located close to Alice Springs, we needed a few minutes with our car. There you can see several Australian animals, like poisonous spiders and snakes, kangaroos, budgies and parrots. The park is nicely landscaped and costs 22,50 Aus Dollar per person with discount. In addition, we got to see a nice bird show with a white owl, which seemed to be to some extent appropriate to the species. Dingos, the outback wild dogs, could be seen on the close hill.

MacDonell Ranges – Simpsons Gap and the first sleeping area in the outback

If you have enough time, I would highly recommend going to the MacDonell Ranges, located in the east of Alice Springs. The area around Uluru/ Kings Canyon is very touristic. The MacDonell Ranges offer beautiful lonely mountain scenery and the best outback feeling. First stop was the Simpsons Gap, a gorge between two really big red rocks. In the evening light, the red tones shimmer beautifully and you often see couples get married there. Because it slowly became dark and there was a high chance to have a kangaroo accident in the twilight, we decided to go to a nearby free rest area. The app “Wikicamps” shows you all the legal free rest areas and there are a lot in the outback. The rest area was absolutely perfect: We slept next to the Hugh River in the middle of the outback. The first night in the outback was absolutely special, the camper gave us such a save feeling. At around 3 ´o clock in the night, I woke up because I thought it was already the next morning. The moon and the stars were shining so bright, I have never seen such a gigantic, clear starry sky. We did the road trip in May, this means sunset is about 5:45 pm, pitch dark at 6:45 pm. Quite often Dingos sneak around the car and big black parrots with red bottom wake you up in the morning!

Mac Donnell Ranges – hiking tour to Ellery Creek Big Hole and Ochre Pits

At 6:30 am the sun rose up and we drove to the Ellery Creek Big Hole. It was still fresh, when the sun came out it became really warm. It was a 4 km hiking path, we walked around 1,5 hours through the mountainous outback landscape, between grass and a beautiful view. At the end of the path, we saw beautiful red rocks. Another short way led to a water hole between the rocks. Then we drove with our wonderful camper van to Ochre Pits. After a short walk, you can see differently colored rock layers.

MacDonell Ranges – Ormiston Gorge National Park

The best recommendation for MacDonell Ranges is the Ormiston Gorge National Park, I would at least spend half of the day there. The National Park is so beautiful! You can choose between different hiking trails: A 5-minute walk to a wonderful idyllic lake between the red rocks, 20 minutes to a viewing platform or a big 1,5 hours tour through the gorge and on top of the rocks. I highly recommend walking the biggest tour, because you really get in touch with the outback and the lonely landscape. The red rocks are shimmering perfectly in the sun. But keep in mind to take along enough water!

MacDonnell Ranges – Glen Helen Gorge and the way back

At a camping area with an old fuel pump, you can park your camper. Then walk the sandy path to the big red rock fissure filled with water. Depending on how much time you have, you can walk on the rocks to the other side. The entire route to the MacDonnell Ranges is drivable in a loop, but the north of the loop is much more interesting, wherever the southern part is pure outback. At the east crossing back to Alice Springs, there is a 4 wheel gravel road leading directly to Kings Canyon. But unfortunately, you have to drive the long way on paved roads with a normal 2 wheel campervan. At the crossing we shot cool photos, nobody disturbed us there. Partly we saw nobody for hours. Every time we waved oncoming traffic. Passing road signs with kangaroos, wild horses, and riders we drove through the outback back to Alice Springs. One advantage of the loop to the MacDonnell Ranges is to already see if you forgot something for the outback and if everything worked well. Because Alice Springs is initially the last town with a Woolworth until you will arrive in Coober Pedy. But no worries! Everywhere on the Stuart Highway there are fuel stops, who sell expensive water. Therefore we additionally bought one more water canister, more bread and sunscreen ( why do I always have too little of that xD ).

Stuart Highway on our way to Uluru

Then the adventure really started. No point of return. We drove the Stuart Highway further south and found a free rest area near to the place “Hugh”, 100 meters before “Owen Springs Reserve” on the left side of the road. Further south we saw Dingos staring at us, very sadly we saw a lot of dead kangaroos on the street as well. We refueled our campervan at “Erldunda Roadhouse” (next to the crossing to Uluru). Then we were ready to take the road to Ayers Rock. The Stuart Highway is the biggest paved road connecting the south and the north of the outback. Nevertheless, you can imagine this road as a single-lane main road, seeing other cars or road trains at most every hour. The road to the Uluru is a little bit smaller and typical for the outback. You have to be a little careful with Aborigines having a car breakdown at the street. I heard about this method before, that they pretend to have a breakdown and want to rob your car at the same time, but I don’t know if that really happens. I never experienced that on my trip, however, I didn’t stop at the Aborigines car breakdowns…but no worries! The Aborigines are very peaceful. Despite a few drunken Aborigines they don´t show violent behavior or have weapons to my knowledge. After we spent a wonderful time in the MacDonnell Ranges we drove to the famous Ayers Rock in the middle of the outback. Read more in my article:  Exploring the impressive Uluru in the Australian Outback.   *** Dieser Artikel enthält Werbung, da Marken genannt werden.