We knew before we left England that our trip to Australia wouldn't be complete without a visit to its Red Centre. We flew from Cairns to Alice Springs, then took a three day 'Safari in Style' to the red heart of this vast continent, to see life in the outback at Uluru (formerly Ayer's Rock); Kata Tjuta; and King's Canyon. The road in the picture was quite exciting when we began our journey, but six hours later we were hot and bothered, relieved we had arrived at our camp at last, and ready for a cold one.
This is the 4 x 4 bus in which we and our fellow explorers bumped and baked across the desert.
Click on the picture to enlarge, and you will see that these are toilets for 'Sheilas' and 'Bruces'. I've told you before that Aussie toilets can be a joke, and these were no exception.
Here it is, Uluru, Ayer's Rock, in all its glory, photographed from the viewing area reserved for coaches. Thousands of people turn up at sunrise and sunset every day, and the national park is very well organised to recieve them. For once, we didn't mind sharing the experience with many others, as most of the tours, including ours, provided bubbly and nibbles for us to enjoy while we waited for the sun to sink.
This is our luxury tent at Yalara, the accommodation village specially built to take all the tourists who want to stay at Uluru overnight. It may not look much, but we had very comfy twin beds, a lamp, and a fan - what more could we need? What nearly did for us though was the early morning starts. We left Alice at 6am on the first day, rose at 4.15am for the sunrise on the second day, and had a lie-in till 4.45am before our trek across King's Canyon on the third day. It was particularly hard for Brian, who hadn't realised previously that there were two four o' clocks in the day.
This is a sunrise shot. Although we were awed to see Uluru for ourselves, we were a tiny bit disappointed that we didn't see magnificent skies at either sunrise or sunset on our visit.
Enjoying a glass of the very respectable sparkling 'Yellow Dog'.
This is a shot of Uluru taken when we walked round the base (about 9km) in the early morning before the sun became too hot. The rock was very different. much more beautiful and interesting, when seen up close and personal.
Indiana Carmichael setting out on his latest expedition.
Flies, damn flies! We laughed when someone warned us about the nuisance of flies in the desert, but luckily we took her advice and bought insect nets just in case. I would surely have gone crazy without mine, as the flies, though they didn't bite or sting, were a constant aggravation.
Another desert view, this time with a salt flat in the distance. Although the earth was unrelentingly red, we were surprised at the number of small trees and shrubs we saw. These provided shade and shelter for a variety of wild creatures including kangaroos, wallabies, emus and dingoes. 
What looks like a white line running up the side of Uluru is in fact a chain, which you hold on to if you are foolish enough to want to climb to the top in 40 degrees. The aboriginal custodians of Uluru prefer tourists not to climb the rock, and that was enough of an excuse for us to decline. As it happened, no-one in our party was tempted to try to scale the 380m (or thereabouts); we were all content to walk round the base. 
This is King's Canyon, where we took a 7km walk on our third day. This was a more arduous walk than the base of Uluru, and took about three and a half hours to complete. It began with a steep climb up over 300 steep steps roughly hacked out of the canyon side, then a clamber over the plateau and different levels of the canyon sides. The views from the top were impressive, and though it was 35 degrees we were blessed with a slight breeze for all but the last twenty minutes of the walk.
Taking a breather in King's Canyon.
This is a sunrise shot. Although we were awed to see Uluru for ourselves, we were a tiny bit disappointed that we didn't see magnificent skies at either sunrise or sunset on our visit.
Enjoying a glass of the very respectable sparkling 'Yellow Dog'.
This is a shot of Uluru taken when we walked round the base (about 9km) in the early morning before the sun became too hot. The rock was very different. much more beautiful and interesting, when seen up close and personal.
Indiana Carmichael setting out on his latest expedition.
Flies, damn flies! We laughed when someone warned us about the nuisance of flies in the desert, but luckily we took her advice and bought insect nets just in case. I would surely have gone crazy without mine, as the flies, though they didn't bite or sting, were a constant aggravation.
Another desert view, this time with a salt flat in the distance. Although the earth was unrelentingly red, we were surprised at the number of small trees and shrubs we saw. These provided shade and shelter for a variety of wild creatures including kangaroos, wallabies, emus and dingoes.
What looks like a white line running up the side of Uluru is in fact a chain, which you hold on to if you are foolish enough to want to climb to the top in 40 degrees. The aboriginal custodians of Uluru prefer tourists not to climb the rock, and that was enough of an excuse for us to decline. As it happened, no-one in our party was tempted to try to scale the 380m (or thereabouts); we were all content to walk round the base.
This is King's Canyon, where we took a 7km walk on our third day. This was a more arduous walk than the base of Uluru, and took about three and a half hours to complete. It began with a steep climb up over 300 steep steps roughly hacked out of the canyon side, then a clamber over the plateau and different levels of the canyon sides. The views from the top were impressive, and though it was 35 degrees we were blessed with a slight breeze for all but the last twenty minutes of the walk. 
Taking a breather in King's Canyon.
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