The Red Centre

We left Glen Helen armed with our permit and took the Mereenie Loop road to King’s Canyon which involved about 135k of unmade road, no problem for our big Land Rover. On the way we stopped at the summit of Tyler’s Pass to photograph Gosse Bluff to the South. The Bluff is believed to have been formed by a meteorite strike some 142 million years ago. Estimates are that the resulting explosion would have been equivalent to a million atomic bombs!

We enjoyed Kings Canyon and in cool but sunny conditions did some walking. One walk along the creek towards the head of the Canyon gave an excellent view of the sheer cliff faces which are the subject of so many photographs of the national park. A couple of days later saw us on our way to Uluru / Ayers Rock, the first view of which always stuns me. Jenny and I have visited The Rock on numerous occasions but could not resist the sunset loookout as the light is different on every visit. I captured the ‘duty Rock image’ and turned around to find the sky to the West a beautiful mauve.

Jenny and I have spent a great deal of time in the deserts from The Rock all the way to the WA coast and obviously seen many many sunsets but never have we seen a sky so mauve. I will spare you the ‘duty image’ and share what I was able to capture of the mauve sky.

On our last evening we ticked another ‘bucket list’ item - visited the ‘Field of Light’. Created by the UK born artist Bruce Munro, the display is an installation of more than 50,000 slender stems crowned with frosted glass spheres which bloom as darkness falls, and then periodically change colour’. The installation was created in 2016 and has proven to be so popular that its life has been extended a number of times. It is now scheduled to be removed in December 2027. We were so glad we were finally able to see it having had Covid disruptions prevent our visiting for the last couple of years.