The Red Center

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words but the Outback is too large to photograph.  So we’re beginning this post with a few definitions because to get the full experience there are some things you need to understand.

Alice Springs is a small city near the center of Australia and the only one within 1000 miles with an airport.

The Red Center – We have always heard and called it the Outback but Australians call it The Red Center. The soil in the center of Australia is rich in iron and, as you know, iron rusts even when it’s in the soil and in rocks so it is rust red. The distances are so immense that it is unimaginable. Even driving through the American Southwest does not compare. Imagine driving from Norfolk, Virginia to Kansas City and never crossing a river, going over a single bridge or highway, or seeing more than 5 or 6 other cars during the whole trip – that is The Red Center of Australia.

Cattle Stations – Even the poorest grazing land in the US will feed 3 head of cattle per acre.  The largest cattle ranch in the US is the Bishop Ranch in Hawaii at 225,000 acres or about 350 square miles.  In the Red Center it takes 3 acres to feed one cow.  Ranches are huge with some measuring more than one million acres or about 1562 square miles.  They are so large and far between that the owners have established their “Ranch Houses” along the highways as a type of truck stop.  They offer sleeping rooms, camping spaces, café’s and convenience stores to both tourist and drivers of Auto trains.  Auto trains are trucks pulling 3 full size trailers and are more than 175 feet long.  It is the only economical way of transporting goods over such long distances.

Uluru (pronounced oo-lah-roo) is the Aboriginal (native Australian) name, and new official name, for what was formerly known as Ayers Rock. It is the huge, red, flat-topped rock that marks the center of Australia. It is a sacred place. A place steeped in Aboriginal history and tradition. It is the Heart of The Red Center.

December 1, we flew from Cairns to Alice Springs – tropical rainforest to dessert – 80 degrees and humid to 98 degrees arid/dry. Alice Springs is a quiet little town and was the jumping-off place for our next adventure, and what an adventure it was.

We arrived early enough to do laundry and wander around a little. They had lots of little shops and pubs like The Thirsty Camel. They also had Target, Pizza Hut, and maybe some of you remember Woolworths – it’s now a large grocery store chain. Anyway, we were hungry for home cooking so we grabbed KFC (tastes like home) and hit the sack early – tomorrow starts early.

Before dawn, 6:05 AM, we were out at the curb ready to go. We didn’t realize at the time that this was a “late start” for this trip. Anyway, our mini (20 passenger) 4 wheel drive tour bus picked us up and here I’ll digress and tell you about our travel companions. There were 14 in our group on this adventure and we were an international group to say the least. We had a lady from Canada, another from Slovenia, a young man from Switzerland, a young woman from Sweden and another from South Africa, a couple from England, another from Belgium, a young couple from Sydney, a gentleman from Tasmania, and a couple from Virginia – that would be Tom and me. What an interesting mix which lead to some very interesting and enlightening exchange of thoughts, philosophies and world views. This is one of the many things that we really enjoy about traveling. We’re getting to know this world of our and its very diverse inhabitants. I left out the most important member of our group – JJ, our very knowledgeable and friendly guide/shepherd on this safari. JJ is a young man with a great deal of knowledge and a deep love and respect for the land and its inhabitants past and present. He explained what we were experiencing and gave us some of the history everywhere we went. He was terrific.

By 6:20 we were headed into the Red Center! I had always thought of the Outback as being a desert – very arid with lots of rocky sand and little vegetation. This land is very arid, an average of less than 2 inches of rain a year. This, however, is not a dessert. According to JJ it is, ”a semiarid scrubland” commonly known as The Bush – maybe because there were thousands and thousands of square miles of red, sandy dirt and bushes. Australia is rimmed by mountains and for the most part, the rivers flow inland where the water eventually disappears into the ground. “Where did it go?” you might ask. The answer is into two huge aquifers – underground lakes that supply the water for the interior, but it should be emphasized that both plants and animals have to work very hard to hydrate.

But I digress. As we traveled, 6 hours, we made several stops at cattle stations along the way. The first stop was a station and also a camel farm. (Camels were introduced to Australia early on by the Afghans. Being very suited to the climate and the terrain, the camels thrived. It is said that now there are more camels in Australia than there are people. Some are on farms but most are wild and free. We saw a small herd in the Bush as we traveled.)

Anyway, we stretched, visited the facilities, bought drinks (non-alcoholic) and of course went for a camel ride. That was interesting. It’s not a way I’d like to travel very far, but it was fun.

There was also an aviary with a variety of Australia’s parrot population as well as an emu – I took pictures.

Back on the van and on through miles upon miles of bush land.

As I said earlier, the trip took about 6 hours and we arrived at our campsite – a very long time since breakfast – in time for lunch.

 

In less than an hour we were off to our next excursion.  I’ll write more about that in the next exciting chapter of Tom and Charli Down Under.