Taking on the Red Centre Way: Kings Canyon to Alice Springs

Taking on the Red Centre Way: Kings Canyon to Alice Springs

Google Maps told us that the dirt road would take about 8 hours, while the longer route was estimated at 6. We decided to go rogue and risk the shorter journey in the hopes that it would be quicker. Before we left, we packed our remaining two wine bottles tightly in a box and tucked any glass containers next to bags of beans, just in case. Our car is a 4WD, but our trailer is not designed to go off-road. The road was one wide strip of corrugated red dust, and Jared quickly discovered that it was generally less jarring to go at 60-70km than it was to slow down. As we jolted our way towards Alice, we saw a toilet that had been torn from the bottom of a low-clearance caravan. I tried think not to about the wine as bits of gravel rattled against the car and my brain rattled in my head.

The first half of the drive was rough, but after 150km and 2.5 hours, we hit the paved Mereenie Loop section of the road. I have never been so grateful for a paved road; I was so relieved that I managed to overlook the many dead brumby carcasses we passed. We traveled along the inner Mereenie loop road to the south, stopping at Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira's house and his home town of Hermannsburg. The loop passes through Aboriginal land and you need to buy a permit to do the drive.

The outer loop through the MacDonnell Ranges has more tourist attractions, but Google was wrong: the inner loop was faster. Including a few stops, it took us 5 hours to reach Alice Springs from Kings Canyon. When we got to the caravan park, the wine had survived while the car and trailer sustained only minimal damage. The trailer's number plate was hanging on by a single screw and there were chips in the light covers. Everything packed in the front and the back of the trailer was covered in a thin layer of red dust, but all in all we got off lightly.