The Red Centre

This is the living heart of Australia. Those who pass through in a few days or even a week of rushing about can never fully appreciate what it has to offer.

More than anywhere else we hike, the Centre can vary dramatically from year to year. Our Red Centre or Green page shows you just how different the same trek can be from one year to the next. Click the link. You'll be glad you did.

In recent years, more and more people have been discovering the 220 km Larapinta Trail. This is one of Australia's best bushwalking trails. Hiking all or part of the Larapinta Trail is a wonderful experience, but the Centre has far more to offer. All of our Red Centre bushwalking trips take you beyond the trails and allow you to experience this timeless land at the leisurely pace it requires. No other tour operator offers off-trail bushwalks of a week or more exploring this amazing region.

On our treks you experience the geological diversity and wide range of flora that the region has to offer. You explore the gorges and waterholes along the mountain ranges as you hike from one oasis to the next. You climb the peaks and enjoy views where no sign of man can be discerned in the wilderness. You relax beside the pools and watch the birds as they come in to drink.

Our treks give you a choice of season and of areas to explore. In winter, crisp, clear days and cold nights often allow you to climb the highest peaks. The warm to hot days and cool nights of autumn and spring mean you are likely to spend more time hiking through the cool gorges and enjoying the waterholes.

All our Red Centre treks depart from Alice Springs. Our getting here page explains how to get to the Alice. Our accommodation and things to do page tells you where you can stay and explains other things you can do in town.

Find out how to get to Alice Springs

We offer trips to four areas:

• The West Macdonnells
• Watarrka National Park
• Finke Gorge National Park
• The East Macdonnells

For details of what trips are on offer, see our Red Centre Trip List.

Interested in birds? See a bird list from one of our Finke - Watarrka trips. The list may be old but we still see most or all of the same species today.

If you would like some general information on central Australia, try the sites below.

• NT Parks has an amazingly informative website The West Macs. It doesn't have a lot of information about bushwalking but it does have a wealth of information about almost anything you might want to know. If you are planning a trip to the Centre, whether or not it is with Willis's Walkabouts, I recommend that youo have a good look at this site before you go.
• Tourism Central Australia
  The many pages on this site offer a wide variety of information.
• Travel Outback Australia has a goodAlice Springs page. This is one of the best sites we have found.
• The Arid Lands Environment Centre has a variety of information about the local environment including an interesting page called Biodiversity Matters.
• Australia's Deserts, Desert Wildlife of Australia has a wealth of information about the different environments, their flora and fauna.

Finally, there are two local attractions that deserve a special mention.

• The Olive Pink Botanic Garden is one of the least known attractions in Alice Springs. For someone with an interest in the flora of central Australia, it is one of the best. By doing some or all of the seven short, self-guided hikes in the garden before a trip will enable you to better understand some of what you will see on your bushwalk.
• The Alice Springs Desert Park displays the plants, animals and landscapes of Australia's deserts and their traditional use by Aboriginal people.