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Uluru (Ayers Rock)
Alice Springs is the main base for tours to Uluru – approximately 460km (285 miles) or five hours’ drive away – and the East and Western MacDonnell Ranges. Uluru is the world’s largest monolith and plays an important part in Aboriginal mythology in which it is believed to have been created by ancestors of the Aborigines. Visitors may still climb the rock, although to do so is considered a gross sacrilege by the indigenous people, or explore some of the fascinating caves at its base. Sunset and sunrise must be seen as the sun’s rays change the rock’s colour from blazing orange to red and even deep purple, depending on the atmospheric conditions.
Twenty-two kilometres (13 miles) from Uluru (Ayers Rock) is the Ayers Rock Resort (Yulara) – a village built to cater for the growing number of visitors to the area. The resort contains top-class hotels, lodges, self-catering maisonettes, shops, bank, restaurants, post office, caravan park and campsites and caters for all the needs of the traveller. Tours depart throughout the day for the Rock, the nearby Olgas and Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, as well as other points of interest.
Uluru (Ayers Rock) has its own airport with daily flights to Alice Springs and direct connections to Sydney and other Australian cities. Car hire is available and all major coach companies service Ayers Rock on a daily basis.
Other points of interest in the Red Centre include Aboriginal tours to Pitjantjatjara country, and the Ross River Homestead for horseriding, log cabins and boomerang throwing. Kings Canyon (Watarrka National Park), four hours’ drive southwest of Alice Springs, offers spectacular views, while visitors can discover the ‘Lost City’ (a maze of eroded earth domes) and the ‘Garden of Eden’ (a sheltered green waterhole) when walking around the canyon. Hotel accommodation is available at the Kings Canyon Resort. Campsite pitches are available at Kings Creek Station. Tennant Creek offers trail rides, half-day cattle drives and gold mine tours. One hour’s drive from Tennant Creek is the impressive formation of 7m (23ft) boulders called The Devil’s Marbles.
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