Alice Springs is one of the most far away, hard to get to places on earth.  It’s a place I’ve dreamed about visiting since first reading Bruce Chatwin’s book The Songlines twenty years ago.

When Dani and I started planning this trip she reminded me her childhood friend Kara now lived in Alice.  It became one of the “absolutely must visit” places on our itinerary.

Conor was sitting in the window seat on our flight into Alice from Melbourne.  As the plane descended through the clouds, he shouted: “Dad, look down there – everything’s red!”  And so it was.

Kara and her husband Rob picked us up at the airport.  We had arrived in time to attend Kara’s company Christmas party on a cattle station two hours from Alice in the central Australian Outback.

We made our way through the other-worldly landscape, putting Rob’s new four-wheel drive Toyota through its paces.

Once at Tilmouth Well, Roy and Janet, our hosts for the evening, welcomed us like family.

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