As planned today was a short hop of 138km to Alice Springs so we arrived in Alice mid morning.
Alice Springs came as a bit of a surprise really. I’m not sure exactly what I’d expected but I had in my minds eye something like a flat red dust bowl with a large cluster of buildings standing out in the middle of a plain. In reality Alice Springs is surrounded by hills and if anything is nestled in valleys rather than standing proud on the plain. Apparently this is a common misconception as, we were assured later, many people have exactly the same reaction when they come to Alice for the first time.
We stopped at the info centre first in the town centre and picked up a few leaflets. The permit we need for the Red Centre Way, that we’d planned to buy at the info centre, is issued for a specific day. This meant that we couldn’t buy it in Alice as we don’t know yet what days we’ll need it for, we can buy it at a couple of locations nearer the track though. You need a permit as the track goes through Aboriginal lands.

We visited Anzac Hill which, as well as being the site of the war memorial, is a large hill near the centre of Alice which offers views across the town. We also visited the war museum at the RSL which was more of a room with some interpretation boards. Some interesting “trench art” though.
A quick romp around the Coles supermarket to refresh supplies and we headed to our chosen camp site in the southern part of Alice Springs. We booked in for one night initially so we could plot our plan of action for the region. Once we’d formulated our plan we then booked in for a second night as we will use the camp site as a base while we explore the eastern part of the MacDonnell range tomorrow (Monday). On Tuesday we will then set off west to the Red Centre Way and Kings Canyon and will probably make it to Uluru on Thursday, that’s the current plan anyway – we’ll see what tomorrow brings first !