ALL ABOUT ALICE

Stepping off a plane at Alice Springs airport is like stepping into a slower pace of life. It sounds contrite, as you could say the same thing about arriving in plenty of places. But after you’ve craned your neck to see out the plane window at the variety of red, orange, yellow and even green hues below you when you fly in, it’s clear you are somewhere very different and totally unique. As Alice Springs doesn’t have the immediate mountainous impact that some mountain bike destinations have, you’re removed from that sense that you have to go, get moving, get on your bike, get rad and get onto social media about it that some destinations have. The landscape in Alice Springs hasn’t changed for millennia – and it’s not about to. Arrive. Relax. Then ride. Here at AMB we’ve made the trip out to Alice Springs a number of times, and almost always for one of the mountain bike events here. From Lasseters Easter in the Alice, through to The Redback which is the current guise for the original Red Centre Enduro. We are believers that a mountain bike event can be one of the best reasons to visit a place, but the trails in Alice Springs and the infrastructure around them are beyond the point where you need to be part of an event to find them all! Depending what local mountain biker you speak to, you’ll hear a variety of claims about how many trails are built in and around Alice Springs. Trail building is something of a past time and we have heard claims of 150km of trail snaking around this outpost in the Northern Territory, and even grand claims of 400km of singletrack. Whichever it is, there is one thing we can be certain of. Alice Springs is getting more singletrack.