Routes · Oceania

Mumbai to the Red Centre: Alice Springs and Kings Canyon

Mumbai → Alice Springs → Kings Canyon

An outback town & a canyon rim walk Best season (general guide): Apr–Sep

Australia's Red Centre is a land of ochre ranges, gorges and ancient Aboriginal culture. This route spends three nights in Alice Springs and three at Kings Canyon. From Mumbai you'll connect through an Australian hub to Alice Springs. Alice Springs, known in Eastern Arrernte as Mparntwe, is the third-largest settlement in the Northern Territory, after Darwin and Palmerston.

How to pace it: Spend days one to three in Alice Springs: day one, Telegraph Station; day two, Flying Doctor and School of the Air; day three, west MacDonnell Ranges. Then spend days four to six at Kings Canyon: day four, road to Watarrka; day five, canyon rim walk; day six, Kings Creek walk.

Alice Springs was named after Alice, Lady Todd, wife of the telegraph pioneer Charles Todd. The town lies roughly at Australia's geographic centre, nearly equidistant from Adelaide and Darwin. The Alice Springs Telegraph Station, built for the Overland Telegraph Line in the 1870s, is preserved as a historic site. The Royal Flying Doctor Service has a visitor centre in the town.

The School of the Air in Alice Springs teaches children on remote stations by radio and now online. The MacDonnell Ranges run east and west of the town, with gorges such as Standley Chasm, where the walls glow at midday. Watarrka National Park contains Kings Canyon, with sandstone walls about 100 metres high. The canyon rim walk climbs steeply and then follows the top of the walls past rock domes.

The Larapinta Trail, a long-distance walk, follows the West MacDonnell Ranges. The Todd River, which runs through the town, is usually dry; a boat race on its sand, the Henley-on-Todd regatta, is held each year. The Alice Springs Desert Park displays the plants and animals of central Australia.

Kings Canyon is about 300 kilometres by road south-west of Alice Springs. Uluru, further south-west, lies in the UNESCO-listed Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. Watarrka is part of the lands of the Luritja people. The cooler months, from April to September, are best for walking; summer is very hot.

Safety: Canada's advice for Australia is to take normal security precautions (updated 26 May 2026), and the US rates Australia Level 1 (18 Aug 2026).

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