It’s an early rise today but seeing Australia is what you came for, right? After watching a fiery outback sun rear up over the world’s biggest rock get a real sense of the rock’s scale on an unguided walk around its base. Then learn about the cultural significance of this iconic landform on a cultural interpretative walk with an indigenous guide. In their creation time stories, the Anangu’s ancestral beings the Mala settled here after being chased to the region by an evil dog-like creature called kurpany. The on-site Cultural Centre also houses an extensive collection of indigenous arts and crafts for you to browse. Tonight we spend the night in an exclusive campsite in Watarrka National Park. Note: Total driving time today is around three and a half hours. Total walking time is approximately two hours. (BLD)
Day 3: Kings Canyon Rim Walk
The centrepiece attraction of Watarrka is undoubtedly Kings Canyon; a humongous gorge enclosed by sheer rock walls hundreds of metres high. Offering a welcome escape from the dry desert heat, this site’s deep gullies and hidden rock pools provide shelter to more than 600 species of native plants and animals. Your guide will point these out on a guided trek that takes in the canyon’s most famous sites – the Lost City, Garden of Eden, Amphitheatre and North and South Walls. Then it’s lunch, rest, and back to Alice for the night where we will drop you at your accommodation, Alice Lodge Backpackers. Note: Total driving time takes around five hours. Total walking time is approximately three hours. (BLD)
Day 4: Alice Springs to the Western MacDonnell Ranges
Leave Alice Springs at 7am from your accommodation, watch the Australian wilds waking up on a morning drive out to the West MacDonnell Ranges. Reaching this national park, we’ll follow the Waterhole trail through Ormiston Pound to Ormiston Gorge – a tranquil little rock pool surrounded by ochre-coloured rock walls and white-trunked eucalyptus trees. Black-footed rock wallabies often pop down here for a drink, so keep your eyes open. Next up is Ellery Creek, where there’s the chance to cool off with a dip. Following lunch, it’s on to Simpsons Gap. Known as Rungutjirpa to the Arrernte people, this deep gorge, often partly filled with water, is associated with goanna, eagle and rock wallaby dreamings. If it takes your fancy, see the colours of the ranges change during sunset from atop a camel on an optional sunset ride. The total driving time will be about half an hour, and you will walk up to 5km. (L)
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