By Fi
We arrived into the MacDonnell Ranges after travelling from the Stuart Highway, along Binns Track, an unsealed dusty track that lead us to the Hale River Homestead, our stop for the evening. Hale River is a great place, in the bush with loads of history, bush walks, a bar, pool, great facilities and so we relished a non-alcoholic beverage, a little toe dip in the pool and enjoyed the respite from the bumpy track. Ok yes, there were about a million giant mozzies, so we didn’t fancy staying as long as we would have liked.
The next day we were off again, this time towards Arltunga where one of the first gold mines and inland towns in Australia was constructed. Unfortunately, the traditional owners had been driven off their land due to these developments, and now all that appears to remain are the ruins of the mining town, inclusive of police station, government buildings and mine hardware.
We went for a walk to the colonial cemetery and to a couple of the gold mines. The colonial people here did it hard, and apparently often the amount of gold they found, wasn’t worth the cost of living there. They had to ship in food and water and great expense just to live there in a small, square stone hut with a canvas roof.
After a little while of looking around (and a big chat with the local Ranger who was so excited to see a couple of tourists), we headed to our campsite for the night, the “Panorama” campground in the Trephina Gorge. A quick walk up the dry river bank confirmed our plans for the following day to walk the Panorama Walk on the rim of the gorge. We watched the sunset colours change on the gorge wall as we enjoyed some dinner and took ourselves off to bed.
Our morning gorge walk was spectacular with views over the ranges, finishing with a saunter down the dry river bed back to our camp. This photo was taken standing on the ridge just before we descended into the dry river bed below.
Alice Springs was to be our next stop, so we said goodbye to the relative solitude of the East MacDonnell’s and drove into “Town”. We had picked a little caravan park outside of Alice to be our stop for the evening, so we got all our jobs done, and headed there to wind down for the day and make our plans for our next steps. We’d prefer to move along from Alice, because we like the wilderness and solitude, however we did relish some great great food in town washed down with some excellent coffees. Really rivalled those of the Inner West in Sydney (yes I said it).
Here are our excited faces as we cook dinner and plan our next adventures.
The West MacDonnell Ranges were calling. This is where apparently most of the tourists go (according to the lonely Ranger at the East MacDonnell’s). The West MacDonnell’s have the big ticket items, such as Kings Canyon and Serpentine Gorge, as well as the Ochre Pits and are also on one of the roads to Uluru.
After leaving Alice, we had time to find a roadside free camp with a perfect sunset view.
Our first stop the next day was Serpentine Gorge. The dreamtime stories say there is a snake or monster that resides in the water here, and people are not allowed to swim – this is not a safe place according to local custom. We took some photos (an example included here of the shadowy gorge and pool) and enjoyed the quiet of the place, and moved along to our next stop, the Ochre Pits.
Ochre was an important resource to the Traditional Owners, using it from everything from paint, to curing ailments. These pits represent a rich source of the ochre and the colours are simply iridescent. The photos can never do it justice so I did filter this photo a little so it showed what we saw more accurately. You can see the deep red, the yellow and the lighter coloured ochres here in the vertical lines. The layers are vertical as the land was pushed up thousands upon thousands of years ago to its current vertical positioning.
Further up the road, we were hoping to complete a walk in Orminston Gorge. This gorge leads out to a “Pound” which is a large flat area surrounded by ridges. The walk was estimated at 3.5 – 4 hours, and would take us up the south side of the gorge, around the back and into the pound. Signs warned us that there was going to be swimming in cold water involved due to the unseasonal rain, however I was confident these signs were simply a left over from months before, and it wouldn’t be an issue for us. We continued through the pound, and I was so excited by the thousands of native plants, seemingly placed as if they were a specimen display in a botanical garden. Clearly here – very happy.
Towards the end of the walk, we boulder hopped through the creek bed, and eventually came upon what the signs were warning us about. The swim. We either had to swim across the river, or walk the 2.5 hours back through the gorge, arriving at the car on sunset. So swimming it was, fully clothed and fully shoed.
Making it across, with our pack and electronics dry, we were pretty pumped and headed back to the car (and a cheeky shower at the campsite here) and on to our campsite for the evening – solitude in a river bank at yet another free bush camp. Twas a rather massive day so a fire was a nice way to unwind.
And finally, I have to mention the budgies. They are so cute and we’ve seen thousands! Adrian got this epic shot of these two lovers. Also not to be outdone, my phone shot of the chatter of budgies is below.
More adventures in the west to come as we have plans to follow the Mereenie Loop Track south through to Kings Canyon and on to Uluru. That was a bumpy ride and I’ll have a few choice things to say about it next time.
