We awoke to a plummet in the temperature, only 5 degrees, so we found the jackets and headed into Alice to visit the Araluen Cultural Precinct. Unfortunately we were disappointed with the limited pieces of aboriginal art for showcase in the gallery, so we grabbed a coffee and drove to Anzac Hill for a great view over the town.
Alice Springs had a very different
feel to the last time we were here (6 years ago). The town had a rather eerie,
isolated feel, with very few tourists around - no doubt due to the recent media
attention regarding violence particularly from local youth. We needed to stock
up on groceries before heading off grid, so headed to Coles in the centre of
town. Andrew stayed with the car, whilst Cathy went in and shopped. There
appeared to be no other tourists in the store and with the presence of two
security guards, one at the door and the other roaming the car park, Cathy
shopped very quickly and we were glad to leave and head back out of town. Sippy
was hoping to also get some beer whilst in Alice, but all liquor shops are
currently only open Wednesday – Friday, so no luck for him (probably just as
well as he would not have felt too comfortable carrying it back to the car).
Tuesday morning we packed up and
joined Larapinta Drive - destination the West MacDonnell Ranges. Our first stop
was only 20mins away, Simpson’s Gap. We were blessed with a beautiful blue-sky
day, so we were anticipating some lovely photos showcasing the brilliant
colours.
We stopped at the park information
centre (which was unmanned) and did the recommended Ghost Gum walk, passing by
several ancient, towering Ghost Gums. Due to recent rains the area is very
green compared to our last visit, with all the shrubs and trees quite vivid
against the red dirt and big blue skies. We then drove on down to the gap and
walked down to the waterhole.
Standley Chasm (Angkerle Atwatye –
meaning ‘the Gap of Water’) was next on the list – another 27km on. Perfect
timing, we arrived at around 11:30am, in time to walk to the end of the gorge
and see the sun beautifully positioned between the two red rock faces. They
were actually filming a TV doco with local Aboriginal women relaying stories of
their time growing up in the area whilst we were in the gorge. They waved us
through and encouraged us to spend as much time as we liked marvelling the
beauty of the gorge at midday.
On the walk out we took a detour up
onto the Larapinta Trail (Section 3). The climb up from the gorge trail to the
top of the cliff was very rocky and steep, but we managed and were rewarded
with a great view from the top. We admired how Bree had carried a 17-kilo pack
along this section of the Larapinta when she did her Gold Duke of Edinburgh
expedition here in 2015!
Another 30kms on and we reached
Ellery Creek Big Hole, a beautiful large waterhole easily accessible with a
sealed road. Although the water looked very inviting, it was far too cold for a
dip this time around. Last time we visited we did swim here. We were lucky enough
to have the place to ourselves, so we sat by the waterhole and took in the
serenity.
As it was early afternoon we decided to head to our camping destination for the next three
nights in order to set up before the sunset and the temperature
plummeting. We were camping at Redbank Gorge in the West Mac NP, which was at
the western end of the ranges. Sippy had booked one of the best sites earlier
in the year and had read the reviews – so was fully informed about driving in
the wrong direction to be able to access the site. We had firewood for the 3
nights, so after setting up we got a beautiful blazing fire going. The stars also
came to the party for the next 3 nights :)
We awoke to 3 degrees … burrrrr – but lucky for us we had
the diesel heater so we were toasty having breakfast in bed – spoilt indeed.
After playing around with the ‘follow me’ command on our
bikes with the drone, we rode on a rather rocky track down to the start of the
Redbank Gorge track. We chained up the bikes and walked the remaining 1.2km, traversing
the river stones and clambering over some decent boulders to reach the gorge.
Last time we visited here we swam across the waterhole and through the gorge
until we met a snake and made the decision to retreat. This time Cathy paddled
her feet in the freezing water only, as the weather, although sunny, was only
22 degrees and not enticing enough for a dip. We had a lovely chat to a family
from Brisbane travelling with their three primary school aged children.
We then motored on to visit Ormiston Gorge. How beautiful!
We missed this last time (due to lack of time) but we made the most of the
visit this time, hiking the loop track, past the lookout and along the river
bed and picture perfect waterholes. Sippy managed to find a way down the slope
so that we avoided having to swim across the deep waterhole to the other side.
Had to go down on my backside as rather steep, but worth it to avoid swimming holding
our gear above our heads!
We had lunch and an Alice Springs Brewing Ale at Glen Helen
Gorge and then headed to see the Ochre Pits. This was amazing, with swirling
near vertical curves of colour on the 10m high cliffs. Wind and rain have
carved layers to reveal beautiful designs in the ochre. The yellow is caused by
a mixture of white clay and iron oxide (rust), the red is formed by high levels
of oxidised iron and the white comes from kaolin, a white clay mineral. It was such
an authentic site and one could just imagine the importance of this resource to
Aboriginal people for their ceremonies and rituals. We were blessed to be able
to walk up to the cliffs and see the ochre firsthand. I loved it.
Back at Redbank Gorge, we set a lamb roast in the Weber, lit the fire and popped some Champagne to toast another great day.
No comments:
Post a Comment