Destinations / Alice Springs / North of Alice

The area stretching north of Alice Springs is known for its serene beauty and as a setting for gem fossicking, bush walking, bush camping and four-wheel-driving.

The Plenty Highway leaves the Explorer's Way 70 kilometres north of Alice Springs and links travellers with Queensland through the Harts Ranges - the scene of a gem and mineral rush in the 19th Century and an area of great cultural significance to the Arrernte people. You can have a go fossicking for your own gems with a tag-along tour from Gemtree, hunting for semi-precious stones such as garnets and zircons.

The Tanami is the epitome of what most of us regard as a desert - a vast, flat and sandy red landscape. The notorious Tanami Track cuts a 1,050-kilometre sandy course from Alice Springs to Halls Creek in Western Australia's Kimberley region and should only be tackled by the most experienced of four-wheel-drivers.

Those travelling further north along the Explorer's Way will find settlements such as Aileron a welcome pit stop, just as they were for early pioneers working along the old Overland Telegraph Line that once relayed messages between Adelaide and Darwin.