We flew from Adelaide in the morning to Alice Springs. It was remarkable landing into the tiny airport with bright red sand all around as far as I could see. I couldn’t even find Alice Springs because it’s so tiny it would qualify as a village in most other places. Extreme heat hit us as soon as we stepped out of the airplane. Miraculously we were able to fit all our belongings into the rental since it was smaller than we had thought it was going to be and drove into Alice Springs. It was much smaller than I thought it would be , and there were many Aboriginals, more than we’d seen anywhere else. Apparently the Alice Springs region is the only place in Australia where nomadic Aboriginals still live.

Alice Springs' trash can with Aboriginal Art

We had lunch and walked the main street which only took about five minutes and then we were off to Kings Canyon. Originally Hendrik’s parents wanted to stay a night in Alice Springs but the Master Games were being held there at exactly the same time and no hotels were available. After we’d seen the town I think we were all glad that we weren’t staying in Alice Springs longer than 2 hours because there would be nothing to do at all.  On the way there we saw a road train which is a truck which has 2 or more trailers.

road train

Kings Canyon is located in the Watarrka National Park and there is only one place to stay, the Kings Canyon Resort. All the rooms were booked there as well except for the deluxe rooms which had a Jacuzzi in each facing a gigantic window with views on the desert and therefore this was the best hotel we stayed in.

The Hot Tub and the View

The desert is an amazing place, since it’s both so beautiful and ugly- beautiful because of its colours and vastness and ugly because of its dry barrenness. Maybe I’m just amazed by deserts since I hardly ever go to deserts. I’ve been to one in New Mexico and California years before but this one was especially unique because of its red sand. I do know, though, that I’d never want to live in the desert.