The northern territory of Australia is home to a vast desert known as the Red Centre. This is big sky country – and hugely red. Everywhere you look, you see ancient sandstone hills cut by gorges and ephemeral dryland rivers. Bodies of permanent water are few and far between. In the summer, temperatures can soar to around 40°C (104°F).

Yet even here, life exists even here. One such place of water and life is Trephina Gorge Nature Park, 85 km east of Alice Spring, the main town in the northern territory. Walk past an area thick with scraggy acacias the Australians call scrub, you reach an open area that starts an ascending path towards the top of a cliff. There you come face-to-face with the big, exquisite red. Looking at the striated rock face of the cliff, you’ll be struck by the dark red stones and purple shadows presented by the bands of black, orange and umber. These are ancient rocks. Instead of fading with age, their geological time has intensified them.

Below you is the sandy riverbed. Here and there you see eucalyptus, most memorably the white-barked ghost gums that contrast themselves so definitively against the red earth and blue sky. These hardy plants can grow very tall and thick. Their roots seek out water in cracks between stones, and their leaves hang strategically, each one slanted to keep them from the direct glare of the blazing sun.

Walking around the grassland that wounds around boulders, you may catch a glimpse of ephemeral flowers, brilliant in the sun – the mauve of the desert fuchsias, or the yellow of the cassias looking cheerful against their dark green leaves.

And animals? Most will be hibernating during the day to avoid the heat, but the rare permanent water holes are a breeding ground and refuge for a variety of water creatures – fishes, shrimp, insects. Water holes also sustain frogs, and water birds, kangaroos and wallabies who come in and drink around sunrise and sunset. By night, the bats are active as the pigeons, doves and finches retire to their nests.