Red Centre

Or Not…Central Australia has had an unusual amount of rain recently. It’s rained once since I arrived in Alice Springs and there’s even a river with water in it (this doesn’t happen very often). This means that the desert is covered in a green fuzz. To be honest I think it’s the scorched red earth and glowing red rocks that gives the place its character and think I prefer my centre’s red rather than green!
I went out on a trip today into the Western MacDonnell ranges stopping at various swimming holes and chasms. The MacDonnell ranges stretch across central Australia and Alice Springs sits at a gap in the range.




The landscape looks very different now compared to the last time I was here. Much greener :




I decided to take a helicopter ride at Glen Helen Homestead. Glen Helen is close to Mount Sonder, which at 4500ft is one of the highest mountains in the Western MacDonnell ranges. Given that 4500ft is taller than the tallest mountain in the entire UK this kind of destroys the myth that central Australia is just flat desert (although a lot of it is)