The top 12 destinations from Adelaide to Darwin

EXPLORE Australia's epic heartland: from the cold Southern Ocean, past Uluru and into the tropical Top End, write Charles Rawlings-Way and Meg Worby

Jim Jim Falls

MEG first saw Uluru when she was three, but Charles didn't visit the Outback until he was 30-something, on a trip with Meg.

Climbing down off The Ghan train in Alice Springs, we exchanged looks that said, respectively, "See what I mean?" and, "Ohh, now I get it!".

The air out here is charged with desert ions; the night sky is milky with stars - outback camping is an unmissable experience.

And then there's our ongoing love affair with South Australia's many wineries, pubs, beaches, festivals and our home among the Adelaide Hills stringybarks.

THE TOP 12

1. Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory

Kakadu is an adventure into a natural and cultural landscape like no other. Weathered by successive seasons of wet and dry, the sandstone ramparts of Kakadu, and neighbouring Arnhem Land, have sheltered humans for eons, and an extraordinary legacy of rock art remains. Represented are mysterious figures of the Dreaming, hunting stories, zoological diagrams, and "contact art" - records of visitors from Indonesia and more recent European colonists. Kakadu's Ubirr and Nourlangie galleries are of World Heritage significance and accessible to all.

2. Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Northern Territory

Australia's most recognised natural wonder, Uluru, draws pilgrims from around the world like moths to a big red flame. No matter how many postcard images you have seen, nothing prepares you for the Rock's immense presence, character-pitted epidermis and spiritual gravitas.

Not far away is a mystical clutch of stone siblings known as Kata Tjuta (the Olgas).

Deeply cleaved with narrow gorges and decorated with tufts of vegetation, these 36 pink-red domes majestically flaunt their curves and blush intensely at sunset.

3. Adelaide Central Market, South Australia

Lift the lid on multicultural Adelaide with a visit to the city's world-class food market. Beneath one vast roof you'll find Woodside Cheese Wrights, pasta stalls, delis, locally farmed fruit and vegetables, yoghurt shops, family-run seafood vendors and sausage stands that have been here for decades.

Italian, Greek, German, French, Hungarian ... it's crowded, in-your-face trading, but never intimidating or claustrophobic.

Right next door is Adelaide's Chinatown: Hit the food courts for a steaming laksa, forage for a new mobile-phone cover, or settle in for a Friday-night beer.

4. Wine regions, SA

Persecuted Lutherans on the run from Prussia and Silesia first had the bright idea of planting vines here. Lo and behold - one of the world's great wine societies was born. Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon, Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale shiraz, Adelaide Hills sauvignon blanc, Clare Valley riesling ... the quality is sky high, and the experience of wobbling between cellar doors and their adjunct restaurants and B&Bs is an indulgent delight.

5. Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park, Northern Territory

Paddling a canoe upstream, through one gorge and then another, leaving the crowds behind, you will be drawn into the silence of these towering cliffs, which squeeze the waters of the Katherine River. The surrounding Nitmiluk National Park has even more to offer such as the Jatbula Trail, a five-day walk from the Gorge to the wonderful Leliyn (Edith Falls).

6. Kings Canyon and Watarrka National Park, Northern Territory

Central Australia's lesser-known geological wonder lies within the low George Gill Ranges between Alice Springs and Uluru. Yet it is still a jaw-dropping spectacle. Centuries of changing climates have sliced the canyon out of the reddish sandstone like a knife through butter. The 100m-high walls are extraordinarily smooth. Above the canyon rim are fascinating "beehive" formations, while below permanent waterholes nourish rare plants and shy animals.

7. Kangaroo Island, South Australia

"KI" makes a delightful detour from mainland SA's tourist trail. Only a 45-minute ferry chug across the Backstairs Passage from Cape Jervis, the island (the 131st-biggest island in the world, about half the size of Crete!) is a haven for wildlife, wineries, rock formations and wild ocean beaches.

8. The Ghan, SA and NT

The legendary Ghan - named after central Australia's pioneering Afghan cameleers - is one of the world's great railway journeys. Begun in 1877, the old line from Marree to Alice Springs suffered from wash-outs and shoddy construction before a shiny new line replaced it in 1980. The Alice-to-Darwin section followed in 2004: now there's 2979km and 42 hours of track between Adelaide and Darwin.

9. Oodnadatta Track, SA

Feeling adventurous? Take a two-day trip along SA's Oodnadatta Track - an unsealed 615km desert drive between Marree in the northern Flinders Ranges and Marla on the main Adelaide-Darwin Stuart Highway. There's plenty of history and natural heritage here: threadbare railway towns, remarkable old pubs, natural springs and the astonishing Lake Eyre. But the drive is an essential Australian desert-heart experience. You'll need a 4WD to do it justice check track conditions online.

10. Plunge pools and hot springs, Northern Territory

Litchfield National Park is renowned for its shimmering cascades and gin-clear pools teeming with fish. Katherine, Berry Springs, Mataranka and Bitter Springs are just some of the easily accessible hot springs where rock-heated spring water bubbles to the surface.

11. Mindil Beach Sunset Market, Northern Territory

As the sun dips behind the coconut palms every Thursday and Sunday evening during the dry season, Darwin locals and tourists migrate to Mindil Beach. People mingle among the smoking food carts, fire-twirlers, live music and craft stalls bulging with indigenous art. But it's the food stalls that attract the biggest queues - just about every cuisine is represented.

12. Ikara (Wilpena Pound), South Australia

The geologic highlight of SA's Flinders Ranges is Wilpena Pound, known to the area's Adnyamathanha people as Ikara: an astonishing formation of purple-brown rock escarpments encircling a vast, dusty bowl full of arid scrub, homestead ruins and wandering emus.

This is an edited extract from Lonely Planet Central Australia: Adelaide to Darwin (6th Edition) by Charles Rawlings-Way, Meg Worby & Lindsay Brown. Lonely Planet 2013. Published this month, RRP: $37.99