Touristic attractions in Alice Springs

Desert Park and Reptile Centre

Kata Tjuta, Uluru, and King's Canyon

* Desert Park and Reptile Centre

Alice Springs was a small town in which there was not much to see or do, unless you liked rock climbing and trekking. Daan and I went to the Desert Park and the Reptile Centre. The Desert Park specialized in animal-life of central Australia. Besides a show with birds of prey, there was not much spectacle to be found in the park. For bird- and plant-lovers, there was a lot to see, but a catching explanation and presentation are lacking, so we had soon seen enough. This was in sharp contrast to the Reptile Centre in which the explanation was very good. Visitors were allowed to hold certain lizards and snakes in their hands, which was a very special experience to me. Small is beautiful was a phrase that applied to the Reptile Centre.

* Kata Tjuta, Uluru, and King's Canyon

Central Australia is the land of the spectacular rock formations. The isolated rocks Uluru (Ayer's Rock), Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) and Mount Connor were very special to watch: Hundreds of meters high in an otherwise flat landscape. The land around them has been eroded away over 100 million years, leaving only the hard rocks. They are holy places for the Aboriginals, and certain parts of Uluru were not even allowed to be photographed. We had booked a 3- day trip to see Kata Tjuta, Uluru, and King's Canyon. A nice extra was a helicopter flight of 5 minutes, and the possibility to take a camel ride.

Camel riding viewed from a helicopter

Sunset reflecting off Uluru

From a distance, the rocks looked peculiar, but that was all. The tourist industry tried to make it into an entire happening by dressing up the sunset at Uluru with glühwein, champagne and sauvory chips. The happening was actually more interesting to watch than the rock itself. It seemed that sunrise also needed to be experienced at Uluru: when it was cold and early, and not more beautiful than later in the morning. The same holds for sunrise at King's Canyon, for which we also had to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning.

Uluru in the morning

Otherwise, the rock formations were very impressive from close up. Uluru was a 340 meter high solid rock with lots of holes and cracks that made its appearance quite varied. The nature around it was very pretty. Kata Tjuta were a number of dome-shaped rocks of about 600 meters high. I could walk between them, and while I did that, I stopped every now and then to try to grasp what I saw. The rocks were so big that I failed that attempt. There were no shapes on the rocks that were familiar, so I really had no idea of their sizes. When I looked at them, I completely lost my sense of distance. My brain simply could not figure out whether something I looked at was close up or far away. The walks around Uluru and Kata Tjuta were very much worth doing.

Amidst Kata Tjuta