Flight over the Red Center!

Flight over the Red Center!

Alice Springs, Australia, Australia

Today marked the last early morning wake up call for this holiday. I was up at 6am to pack my bags and check out of the hostel before getting picked up for my scenic flight at 7am. I really lucked out with the flight because I only wanted to pay $190 for a flight over Uluru and Kata Tjuta. This flight didn’t have enough passengers so they offered to put me on another flight instead. Instead of the 40 minute flight I requested, I was put on a two hour flight over the same two sites, PLUS Lake Amadeus and Kings Canyon! This was normally $455, but they only charged me the $190, jackpot!

The flight only consisted of myself, Joe the pilot, and another couple from England. We flew in a four seater Cessna and because I was the single, I got to sit in the front, jackpot again! This was my first time in a small plane and it was awesome! It has cemented the idea in my head that I am going to get my pilot’s license one day. The freedom to hop in a little plane and fly anywhere you want is just too tempting to pass up.

We started by flying over Uluru at sunrise, which was a lot better than yesterday. There were almost no clouds this morning so the rock showed its two faces with the sun hitting the eastern side and the west still being stuck in the shade. We flew past this, like every feature we saw, twice so that passengers on both sides of the plane could get a good view. From there we headed over to Kata Tjuta which looked awesome in the early morning rays.

We then moved on to Lake Amadeus which was about 20 minutes away, and halfway between the Rock and Kings Canyon. The lake was almost completely dried out, but there were a few spots with a little water still in them. The Red Center normally gets about 300ml of rain per year, this year they’ve already had 900ml, so it was rare to see any water in there at all. The main reason for checking out Lake Amadeus is that it is a prime place for spotting wild camels in the outback. We did manage to spot a group of three walking along the flats, but that was it for today.

When we finally got to Kings Canyon it made it very clear as to why people visit there when it’s sunny. It was stunning from up in the air and I wished I could have done the rim walk again. We did a couple of passes over the canyon and the Garden of Eden below it before heading back towards Ayers Rock. It was a full two hour flight and there wasn’t much to see on the way back so Joe took some time to explain a few of the instruments on board. It wasn’t as daunting as I thought it was going to be, again leading me to believe I can get my license one day!

We finished the flight and I jumped in my car from the hostel and hit the road at about 10am to head back to Alice Springs. It was much nicer weather today than the last couple of times I had to drive, so it made for an easier drive. You could see for miles so you didn’t have to be as weary about wildlife running into the road and not seeing it till the last minute.

I made really good time getting up there and was there just before 2pm. I checked into the hostel and met my new roommate Michael from Switzerland. I went out to lunch with him and another Swiss girl named Andrea. I had one of the best burgers ever, but it could possibly be because I haven’t had a proper meal in about 5 days. It’s been granola bars and Ramen noodles for a while because it’s just too expensive to eat properly in these remote places.

We came back to the hostel and relaxed until sunset, when we went up to Anzac Hill to try to recreate what I saw last week. Unfortunately there was almost no cloud cover so the same effect could not be seen. Regardless, it was a nice scene and a lot better than the rain I had seen at the beginning of the trip. The hostel was showing the movie Hancock out in the courtyard so we sat out there and watched it before heading to bed. Michael and Andrea are on a tour tomorrow morning starting at 6am so they will be up very early.

It was a very good last full day of my trip. I’ll head over to the airport in the morning to fly out at 11am and hopefully this won’t be another delayed Tiger flight. We’ll see…

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