Adventure in the Red Center

While I’ve recapped the major hikes and destinations of our tour to the Red Center, there are a few moments I missed. This post details my entire trip with Mulgas Adventures.

This is our simple room at Annie’s Place, where the tour departs from. The price of the tour includes a free stay here upon return.

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Here’s a shot from the van on the morning of our departure… around 5:30am.

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If you are driving in front of the Mulgas van, it must be funny to see these bright red lips floating in your rearview mirror.

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Seeing a joey was one highlight of the trip.

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During the LONG ride from Alice Springs to Kings Canyon, we play group games in the van.

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And we draw our home country’s flags on the van windows.

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Our tour guide and driver extraordinaire, Angus, hangs these signs on the windshield.

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Here’s a warning for any coffee lovers with dairy allergies… there is no soy milk in the Outback. I consequently did not drink coffee for three days.

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And water is very limited.

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Love this shot of our group hike at Kings Canyon.

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Afterwards we stop at the side of the road to pick up firewood for our first night of camping.

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This couple figures out an ingenious way to chop up long pieces of wood — they wedge it between two trunks and then push until it breaks off into smaller sections… but something goes wrong. Check out my very first GIF:

All of us have black hands by the end of our wood collecting adventure:

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Angus bundles up the wood on top of our trailer:

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We drive to the Mulgas camping spot for night one. We’ll sleep outside under the stars (or in our case, clouds). There is a large, empty shipping container with cooking supplies.

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Angus whips up a delicious BBQ meal. It’s around 10pm at this point and I am so tired! We’ve been awake since 5am this morning.

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These magnetic flashlights provide ample light for our food prep. There is no other source of electricity.

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We light a campfire and prepare to enjoy dinner.

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It’s around 11pm by the time dinner is over and I’m anxious to get into my swag bag (a cross between a sleeping bag and a tent) to catch some ZZZ’s. The group plays music well into the night but I pop in earplugs. We are scheduled to wake up around 5am the next day.

Here’s a shot of our campsite in daylight:

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And here’s our rustic bathroom situation…

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The next day we hike Kata Tjuta.

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In the afternoon we move on to Uluru… in the rain.

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We spend the second night at a different campsite. This one has a large communal room for meals. We still sleep outside in our swag bags.

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We enjoy kangaroo meat for lunch the next day. It’s flavorful but very chewy. All of the food on this tour is quite good.

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Here are some images from our base walk at Uluru.

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And here are two scenic shots from our trip back to Alice Springs —

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It was quite an adventure, even at the mercy of the weather. While our hikes were beautiful regardless of the perpetual cloud cover, I do feel like I missed out on a quintessential Outback experience by not seeing Uluru in all its splendor. But it’s part of the deal we make as travelers — we witness each place at a particular moment in time, regardless of external factors. A friend of mine and exceptional photographer, Mary Costa, featured a post on her blog a few months ago from a day-after wedding shoot with a couple in Washington, DC. While Mary lamented the unphotogenic construction scaffolding around the Washington monument, the enthusiastic bride exclaimed, “It’s okay! It’s a moment in time!” That stuck with me and I thought back to it while hiking around Uluru. Yes, I would’ve preferred a cloud-free trip, but that doesn’t take away from how special our time at the Red Center was. I will always remember this time fondly.

And in the spirit of writing an honest review, I have one complaint about this tour, and it’s related to my travel style (as outlined a few paragraphs into this post). There’s little emphasis on sleep on this tour — and there are lots of gap year kids who want to party (I gather from our tour guide that this is fairly consistent on each trip). I would have preferred to tour with like-minded travelers who are more focused on enjoying the sights than staying up late and sleeping on the van the next day. I felt grumpy on days 2 and 3 because I didn’t get much sleep, as the music played well past midnight and our wake-up time was usually 5 or 6am (and my lack of coffee didn’t help — but that is my own fault; silly milk allergies and lack of available soy). If you are reading this and think I am a stodgy old woman, then please sign up for this tour!! It is the one for you. But if you are looking for more emphasis on seeing the sights and getting a good night’s sleep, bear this in mind when choosing a tour company in the Outback.

This post is sponsored by Muglas Adventures, who generously hosted my 3 day tour of the Outback. Opinions, clearly, are my own.

6 thoughts on “Adventure in the Red Center

  1. The tour sounded great (But I am sorry to hear they have no soy milk there!) That does suck for allergies/intolerances.

    Maybe I getting old (HA!) but I agree with you. I like a good night’s sleep, so I can be bright eyed and bushy tailed for the next morning and actually ENJOY IT!

    Sorry about the party goers! :(

    • I appreciate the lack-of-soy sympathy, Jessica! Maybe if I’d had coffee the late-night noise wouldn’t have been as bothersome. It was still a beautiful couple of days in the Outback!

    • I thought it would come to that, Lisa… but then I’ve only had 3 coffees in the last 3 weeks, with few side effects! Maybe I’ve turned a corner in my coffee addiction?!

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