The Red Centre

Nobody told me it was the rainy season! It was cloudy all the time,which meant those fabulous photos of sunset and sunrise for Uluru are not in my camera, and it actually rained in Kings Canyon.
Nevertheless Uluru is quite amazing and seeing it from so many angles, walking around and being told about its significance to the aboriginal people was very special. My tour started in Alice Springs as I flew there from Sydney. I will be going back and hope to be able to report that it is more than just a shopping centre!
This area has 3 main attractions and I got very confused as to what to see, when and how. I don't think any of the brochures make it clear and everybody I have talked to have had trouble so it's not just me.
Uluru (Ayer's Rock) and Kata-Tjuta (The Olgas) are close together, about 5 hours drive from Alice Springs and Kings Canyon is in between. Yulara (Ayers Rock Resort) is the place to stay for the first two but beware as the prices of everything is high - well it is remote! The Outback Pioneer had a range of accomodation and meal time is fun as you buy the raw meat and cook it yourself on large communal barbecues. Kata-Tjuta is probably more spectacular than Uluru as it consists of 4 major lumps sticking out of the ground and a canyon walk in between 2 of them. I could not understand that it was a conglomerate and Uluru a uniform granite monolith with sandstone covering. Kings Canyon is more to my liking than the other two tourist attractions. We walked the rim in the gentle rain (always warm of course) and got many spectacular views of the eroded rock. Kings Canton Resort is the only place to stay, but it was good!
Back to Alice Springs for two more tours. One of the Flying Doctor, School of the Air and the old Telegraph Station which is the reason for Alice's existence. From here you see the spring (actually a river) from which it gets its name. Then a visit to Simpsons Gap where you stand under enormous overhangs of rock. There hasn't been any rock falls for centuries as the wet season is different from the cold season. Finally and best of all for me was Standley Chasm. A short but lovely and peaceful walk into this chasm which ends with vertical walls only about 3m apart. Lots of ferns and eucalyptus trees making it my favourite place.
You have to visit the Red Centre to appreciate how barren it is, how huge the distances are, and to eat camel.