Red Centre Drive Mereenie Loop Road

Uluru rises in solitude at the red heart of Australia, a sandstone monolith more than three hundred metres high emerging from the desert plains of the Northern Territory. Sacred to the Anangu people and a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with nearby Kata Tjuṯa (the Olgas), it shifts colour with the changing light, blazing red and orange at dawn and dusk. Trails wind around its base, revealing rock art, waterholes and shaded gorges, while the stories of the Tjukurpa, the Aboriginal creation time, give voice to every fold of the stone. The nights offer star-filled skies of rare clarity and dinners under the desert sky. Uluru is not merely visited: it is listened to, in silence, in the ancient breath of the outback.

Ayers Rock / Kings Canyon (approximately 310km / 5 hours). In the morning, there is the possibility to explore the base of the monolith or take optional excursions in the desert. Arrival at Kings Canyon in the afternoon, in time to admire the magical colors of the evening on the Canyon, perhaps taking the shorter route inside, leaving the longer and more challenging one for the following morning. Watarrka, home to Kings Canyon National Park, encloses one of the most spectacular gorges in the outback of the Northern Territory. Red sandstone walls over a hundred metres high plunge into a hidden valley where palms and ferns survive, in striking contrast with the surrounding aridity. The famous Rim Walk follows the canyon's edge to the so-called Garden of Eden, a lush oasis among the rocks. A sacred place for the Luritja people, Watarrka offers fiery sunsets and some of the clearest night skies on the continent, an unmissable stop on the road to Uluru.

Glen Helen rises as an isolated oasis along the bed of the Finke River, one of the oldest in the world, amid the rock walls of the West MacDonnell Ranges in the red heart of the Australian Outback. The spectacular Glen Helen Gorge guards a permanent waterhole framed by ochre cliffs, a destination for walks, birdwatching and unrivalled starry skies. An ideal base for exploring the gorges and waterholes of the Northern Territory, west of Alice Springs.

Alice Springs lies at the geographic heart of the Australian continent, an outback town set among the ancient ridges of the MacDonnell Ranges. The spiritual capital of the Red Centre, it has long been a crossroads of Aboriginal cultures and a launch point for exploring one of the planet's most remote landscapes. Its galleries display the dot paintings of the desert peoples, while the surroundings hold dramatic gorges such as Simpsons Gap and Standley Chasm, where the rock walls turn red under the midday sun. From here one reaches Uluru and Kings Canyon and uncovers pioneer stories along the old telegraph line. A solitary, proud town suspended in the vastness of the red desert.