They say that you haven’t been to Australia until you have been to the center. The red center.

One of the best ways to get there is via Train. Specifically The Ghan. A once in a lifetime adventure, this train can take you from Adelaide in the south, all the way to Darwin in the north. We decided to do two days and one night on The Ghan, so it ended our train trip in Alice Springs. The gateway to exploring the center.

Experience The Ghan

I have loved train rides my entire life. My first memories of riding a train was in Australia with my mom as a child. We got to eat and sleep on the train, all while watching the landscapes change during the day. This would be the best way to see the outback while relaxing and not navigating roads. Make sure to spend a couple days in Adelaide. The food scene there is one of the best and they rival Melbourne for best food city in Australia.

Then make sure to enjoy the river path, the National Wine Centre of Australia and the botanical gardens.

This will give you plenty to do for a couple days. Then all aboard!

I was pleasantly surprised with the rooms. Kevin and I stayed in a gold room, which means you have a private bathroom and my mom had a single. Complimentary drinks and fruit and turn down service.

Here is a video of the single. They make it into a bed at night. They had about 10 of them and they were all full. My mom said it was quite comfortable and enjoyed having her personal space, but then did like lounging with us in our room!

There is no entertainment on the train. There is the dining car, bar car and the sleeping cars. This is why we would highly recommend getting a gold room. As you can see from the video above, there is plenty of space to enjoy the landscapes comfortably from your room. The first highlight is crossing into the Northern Territory from the state of South Australia.

The food one the train was actually quite good. We sometimes get nervous when there is large scale production of food, but here we were pleasantly surprised. If you are not in a group of 4 you will be partnered with other people. Since we were 3 we always had a solo traveler added to our table. It was nice meeting people from around the world.

After you were finished you were scurried away for the next seating. Which was fine because we had an early morning. Because this ride was only one night, which we were fine with, you get one excursion and that is to see the sunrise in the outback.

Like I mentioned, we were fine with one night. This is an older train, which means it isn’t a fast or bullet train. I had some difficulty with motion sickness and there really isn’t a place to get outside or open a window fully, so one night was plenty. I wasn’t expecting the motion sickness and normally it is worse at night but on this train it wasn’t bad once we went to sleep.

We made it to Alice Springs!

Alice Springs, The Gateway to Exploring the Center

I have been wanting to make it to Alice Springs for years! For a very specific reason and that is to visit the Kangaroo Sanctuary there. This sanctuary is run by Brolga, Chris Barns and he has been the main kangaroo mom since 2005. He saves hundreds of kangaroos each year and is also a safe haven for those that cannot be released into the wild. He has dedicated his life to Kangaroos and a couple camels! Which reminds me, did you know that there are wild camels in Australia?! I had no clue but apparently it is also one of their biggest exports. Anyways, Brolga’s biggest advice if you are driving through Australia is to always have a pillow case in your car because Kangaroos are hit by cars on the daily and joeys can live up to a week in the pouch. There are numerous sanctuaries around Australia so someone can help, they just need people to take a moment to check.

The Kangaroo Santuary became famous with one of Brolga’s first rescues, Roger. A handsome and huge male Kangaroo that ruled the roost. This is a true to size replica of Roger. He passed a couple years ago. Museums and other organizations offered to buy Roger after his death to put him on display. Brolga said no to all and he is buried just behind this statue.

The amazing thing about Kangaroos is you can interact with them when they are young and they do not imprint on humans. As they get older, even if they were raised by a human correctly, they become scared of them. Roger, even became territorial and put Brolga in the hospital a couple times. So because of this, you can hold a joey! You can’t touch them and you have to use hand sanitizer but you get to hold them! You are also not allowed to let them lick your mouth. Which they do as a sign of affection.

Then you get to take a short walk around the property and meeting some of the kangaroos that are not allowed to be released. Since they can’t be released you are allowed a little more interaction. I was lucky enough to get chosen to give Cindy Lou a treat!

This tour was worth every penny. They pick you up and drop you off at your hotel. You arrive in the evening when the Kangaroos are waking from their daytime sleep. It was so informative, magical and a once in a lifetime experience. It was one of the best days!

Aside from this tour, we spent a couple days in Alice Springs. Unfortunately this city is dealing with unrest from the locals. There was a lot of vandalism, minor assaults and petty theft. We were advised not to leave our hotels after dark. The local government also put some hefty alcohol restrictions. Some of them affected tourism. When we were there you couldn’t buy Alcohol on Sunday through Wednesday. Thursday and Friday it was after 3pm and all day Saturday. You could buy it at your hotel after 3:00 pm, unless you were in a restaurant, then it was a little more relaxed.

We enjoyed our stay none the less and after a few days it was time to board the bus for Uluru!

Uluru and Kata Tjuta (Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park)

I highly suggest taking a bus from Alice Springs to Yulara. Seeing the landscapes and potentially wild camels that I mentioned before makes the 6 hour ride fly by! There are three stops along the way and the bus drivers provide a lot of information.

Yulara is where you will stay for any exploration of Uluru or Kata Tjuta or any place else in the national park. It is a small community of hotels and a small town center. There is a free shuttle that drives the loop on the hour. This area also has very strict rules regarding purchasing alcohol. There are only a couple places and when you do buy it you have to show your hotel key card.

From this area you have a great viewpoint of Uluru. It is a short walk through beautiful red sand. A bit of advice, make sure to buy a fly net. We couldn’t find any in Alice Springs and we went to about 10 places, but on the bus ride to Yulara, there will be places. We almost didn’t buy one because we didn’t think we would need it but you will. They are uncomfortable but the flies are worse.

Take one of the short paths to the viewpoint.

The view of Uluru is amazing. Uluru is sacred to the Anangu, the Aboriginal people of the area. They may have inhabited this area for almost 10,000 years. This is a place for women and there are certain areas that men are not allowed to enter. You can no longer walk on the rock. Tourists disrespected and started to destroy this sacred area. It took until 2017 for there finally to be a ban on climbing. Respect this and the area and come for the view.

I then highly suggest doing a tour to Kata Tjuta. Kata Tjuta is the Pitjantjatjara word meaning ‘many heads’, which you can see. This is the sacred place for men of the tribe. They still do traditional ceremonies here. Specifically when boys become men. Women are not allowed in these areas.

Your first stop is or should be a view of Kata Tjuta. You might even be lucky enough to see a cane toad, but make sure not to touch them!

As you can see from these photos there is actually a lot of green. They have been getting a lot of rain and so it wasn’t just red and browns. Our tour guide, right from the beginning was saying she hoped it rained because only 1% of tourists get to see waterfalls in Kata Tjuta. I wasn’t hoping for rain because I didn’t understand what it meant and I dislike hiking in the rain!

As we drove closer to Kata Tjuta, the weather started to turn. We arrive at Walpa Gorge for our short hike. Walpa means windy and it was definitely windy!

This hike when it is wet is quite dangerous. The rock is very slippery and then dealing with the wind, it can treacherous, so be very careful. If it rains the trail turns into creeks of fast flowing water. It had started to rain when we were almost to the end so we kept going. My mom made it the whole way!

Once we turned around, it started to torrential downpour on us. We were absolutely soaked and I was afraid to pull out my phone but I had to get a picture of the amazing waterfalls that started due to the rain! We were the 1%!

How incredible it was. Once the rain stopped they disappeared. The worst hike with the most amazing views. The tour guides were dancing, we were laughing and trying not to get swept away. Truly another once in a lifetime experience.

This whole trip was, simply put, incredible. One of the best vacations we have been on and sharing it with my mom made it all the better. Let me know if you have any questions on the process, tours, etc. Everyone should experience these amazing places!

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