Still Rocking Around

We spent 2 days exploring the West MacDonnell ranges area and as part of the road we travelled is unsealed and quite corrugated we left the caravan in Alice Springs. Our first stop was at the town on Hermannsburg, a small town where a Lutheran Mission was established in the 1870’s. The town had a 3rd world look with dead cars and lots of rubbish lying around in the backyards of the houses. Quite a bit of rubbish had spilled out onto the roadside too. By the town was a large solar power installation that supplies 50% of the town’s electricity needs. Further down the road is Gosse Bluff, the site of a comet impact crater, formed 142 million years ago (approx). The ring of debris thrown up out of the crater is much the same size as the hills in the neighbouring ranges. We were able to drive into the crater, which is about 5km in diameter, although when formed it was 25km in diameter. We camped overnight at a National Park campsite in Redbank Gorge. We set our tent up on the red dusty ground amongst a scattering of trees. Beside us we had a picnic table, gas bbq plus 2 gas rings and a place for our campfire, not bad for $3.30 per person per night! A couple of kilometres down the road was Redbank Gorge, the place we had come to see. Water has carved a narrow gap through the mountain range creating a narrow, steep sided gorge. There is a permanent waterhole there with surprisingly chilly water. (see photo) The next morning after packing up our tent we headed off to visit 4 more gorges, Glen Helen, Ormiston, Ellery Creek Big Hole and Simpsons Gap, all of which have permanent waterholes and all are a little different to look at. We also stopped at the “Ochre Pits” which are a traditional site of the Aborigines for gathering ochre. The ochre is in a bank of a stream bed and there are different colours of ochre side by side. (see photo) After returning to Alice Springs, the next day we visited a couple of gorges in the East MacDonnell ranges and as the gaps in these were much wider they were less dramatic than those we had seen in the west. There were some Aboriginal paintings here though. Before leaving Alice Springs Jill and Nicky went on a sunset camel ride. The ride was for an hour and as 4km per hour is a camel’s favourite pace they didn’t get to venture very far into the desert. It was good fun. The gait of the camel gives a gentle rocking motion for the rider and the saddles were comfortable. A person on foot led the train of 8 camels and the woman who took our group had walked from Alice Springs to Shark Bay in Western Australia, by herself with 3 camels. None of the camels liked being ridden so she walked all the way! Jill and Nicky also visited the Desert Park in Alice Springs, which they found to be excellent. It had a good display of birds, examples of the 3 types of desert habitats in the area (river, sand and woodland) and there was a free flying birds of prey show. Three and a half hours at the park disappeared in no time. During this time Al went to the transport museum and Old Ghan museum.

On the Road Again
After leaving Alice Springs we spent a night back at the Devils Marbles then stopped a night at Banka Banka Station. The station is one of 3 owned by Kidman Group and all 3 are managed as one. The stations cover 13,000 sq kilometres the largest paddock is 535 sq kilometres. As well as 8 jackaroos the station employs a mechanic, grader driver, road train driver, boreman, cook, accountant, manager and a pilot. The next day we called in at Newcastle Waters and looked through an old pub and store. This town used to be a major gathering point in the droving days but the sealing of the Stuart Highway led to road trains taking over the moving of stock and thus to the town’s demise. Our next night was at Daly Waters where we camped at the pub. Like many of the pubs in this area it was quite old and has a character all of it’s own – the walls lined with banknotes from many countries, caps, sports shirts, bras, panties to name some of the items. Daly Waters has quite an aviation history being a centre initially for Qantas as an international stopover between Brisbane and Singapore then as a base for the US and Australian air force in WWII. We visited an old hangar and drove down the old airstrip 2.1km long.

At Mataranka we found the first of the hot springs that have been a feature of our next three camps. There are two springs at Mataranka and from our campground it was just a few minutes walk to one of them. The pool was widened and deepened by soldiers stationed there during WWII. The spring comes out from underground at 34C, which is a perfect temperature for swimming in. At Katherine our campground was also near at hot spring, this one a little cooler at 32C but nice and refreshing on a hot day. The third of the hot springs was at the Douglas Hot Springs, north west of Pine Creek. Instead of swimming in the river heated by the hot springs we ventured further down the road, which turned out to be very corrugated and very dusty in places, to a lovely gorge. We swam in the Douglas River, which was surprisingly warm and swam to a pool that was almost enclosed by cliffs. (see photo)