Big country, bold stories and a road trip through the Red Centre to remember
Central Australia is the stuff of legend and the inspiration for creation stories – the fine red sand, towering rock formations and secret waterholes offering respite from the desert sun. But what if you’ve just got a week? The Red Centre Way is a 1,100-kilometre looped road trip from Alice Springs to Kings Canyon, Uluru- Kata Tjuta National Park and back to Alice – our route for the next eight days.
A Town Like Alice
Alice Springs is the natural starting point for our Red Centre journey and, after flying up from Melbourne for an express visit, we pick up a 2025 Ford Ranger hire car, aka 'The Warrior', with two rooftop tents. It’s kitted out with kitchen gear and linen, so we travel with small backpacks, and stock up on food and organise permits and other essentials in Alice.
To get our city-bred teens’ heads in the game, we drop in to Alice Springs Desert Park, an open-air wildlife sanctuary, to spy dingoes and bilbies, giant raptors and tiny finches before heading to our first campsite at Ooraminna Station Homestead. The 242-hectare property is 35 minutes’ drive south-east of Alice Springs, with an unusual campground set within a movie prop of an old goldrush town.
