Adelaide to Alice Springs

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Adelaide to Alice Springs

An Amazing Drive through Australia's Red Centre

The Outback is the remote arid areas of Australia, a term used for the red heartland, which surprises with grandeur and timeless beauty, huge areas of glistening salt lakes, stony deserts, rugged mountain ranges, and the vast treeless plains...

The Stuart Highway runs from north to south through the centre of the continent, roughly paralleled by the Adelaide-Darwin railway. There was no absolute speed limit in the Northern Territory before 1 January 2007 but maximum speed limits are now posted on some road sections. The distance from Adelaid to Alice Springs is around 1600 km, and can be done in 3-10 days depending how much time do you have.

A gigantic ?desert oak

The red mud road connecting Northern Territory and South Australia, with Mt Conner in background. Requires 4WD

All flat

Very flat and straight

Beihnd the uluru...

Uluru is one of Australia's most recognisable natural icons. The world-renowned sandstone formation is the largest single piece of rock in the world.

Uluru is notable for appearing to change colour as the different light strikes it at different times of the day and year, with sunset a particularly remarkable sight when it briefly glows red.

Uluru has a great cultural significance for the local aboriginal "Anangu" people. One of the legend tells of two tribes of ancestral spirits who were invited to a feast, but were distracted by the beautiful Sleepy Lizard Women and did not show up. In response, the angry hosts sang evil into a mud sculpture that came to life as the dingo. There followed a great battle, which ended in the deaths of the leaders of both tribes. The earth itself rose up in grief at the bloodshed, becoming Uluru.

It is sometimes reported that those who take rocks from the formation will be cursed and suffer misfortune. There have been many instances where people who removed such rocks attempted to mail them back to various agencies in an attempt to remove the perceived curse!

Climbing Uluru

Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)

There are 36 domes in total. The name Kata Tjuta means 'many heads'. The site is as sacred to the Indigenous people as Uluru.

There are many Pitjantjatjara Dreamtime legends associated with this place and indeed everything in the vicinity including, of course, Uluru. A number of legends surround the great snake Wanambi who is said to live on the summit of Mount Olga and only comes down during the dry season. The majority of mythology surrounding the site is not disclosed to outsiders.

Suntset at Glen Helen, one of the prettiest towns of Australia

Kata Tjuta

No Parking

And no swimming too...

Australians dont let people do much!

The border between Northern Territory and South Australia

Photograohing Kata Tjuta and Uluru at sunrise in freezing cold

Another huge tree, probably millions of years old

West McDonell range from Glen Helen

In the west McDonell ranges, at the banks of Finke river, Glen Helen Gorge is a great place to spend few days in peace. Finke river is one of the oldest rivers of the world.