Ochre Pits, Serpentine and Ellery Gorge.

Another freezing night without power and we are all still in great spirits. We eventually crawled out of the van and I cooked another storm on the bbq of bacon, eggs, toast and muffins.

We were on a mission to explore 3 different places today. However 1st stop was to see if there was any diesel at Glen Helen ( they had run out on Sunday). They did but at $1:90/ litre I only got just enough to get us back to Alice. 

This is supposed to be the most popular place to stay, but I suspect it is only beacause they have power, water and clean flushing toilets. They see the same dusty ground as us and we still much prefer our quiet sites. There was an old traditional hut out front that needed a bit of repair but was interesting to see how the ancestors may have lived. 

1st stop was at the Ochre Pits. A river bed surrounded by an array of different layers of soil, including limestone and red ochre. The cliffs looked extremely fragile yet up close were anything but. This is a sacred area and it is prohibited to dig or take any of the ochre. 

A few hundred metres up the road I made a hard right turn to the Neil Hargrave lookout. Apart from the litter strewn all around, there was a spot where a reflector plate was angled into a non powered dish and a spot where you could rest your phone to get a tiny cellular signal. Remembering this is 200km away from the nearest tower in Alice Springs, it is pretty amazing (and it actually worked to make a phone call too!)

Serpentine Gorge was next on the list. This was an easy 1.1km walk along a flat track to a Gorge that is symbolic to the Indigenous with a deep body of water to prevent both man and animal from entering. Apparently that means that Dylsn is neither of those. He had run off ahead as he always does in an attempt to expel his excess energy, and had started climbing the cliff face. But this time the cliff won and he had fallen in. As we reached the Gorge, there he was huddled between rocks on the other side, cowering low in the hope that we wouldn’t notice.... forgetting that all the other tourists we met were having a giggle and telling us exactly what happened. 

We noticed as we were leaving that there was a trail to the left indicating a lookout. For some reason it didn’t compute that the word lookout meant climb up a ginormous hill until your lungs were bursting out of your rib cage to see the same Gorge from a different angle. Nonetheless up we went. With a few stops to admire the different views (and maybe suck in some much needed oxygen whilst convincing my legs that we were nearly there), we got there and were greeted with a view that only a lookout could offer, and that pictures could never replicate. 

Thankfully the descent was much easier and we got to the car with an eagerness to see the next view. 

Ellery Gorge was our last planned stop for the day. Once again this was a beautiful area, only this time it was a public swimming place as well. However..... the water was at a temperature somewhere around -5 degrees yet not frozen. I have never felt water so cold  - not even an ice bucket. This was literally burning my legs and despite 3 attempts, I couldn’t stay in there for longer than one minute. 

The kids didn’t agree with me though, and showed how tough they were by actually diving in, but getting out again immediately to try and ward off the hypothermia in the19 degree sun. Dylan actually had us worried for a bit as he started feeling unwell, but soon picked up as he warmed up. 

This was our last day out here, and will be heading back to the big 4 in Alice Springs tomorrow. 

We will stop and have a look at Stanley Chasm on the way, but mostly it will be about having showers, doing the washing and getting prepared for the trip to Katherine. 

The Gorgeous Gorges

It was difficult to get out from under the quilts and sleeping bags this morning. It was at least the forecast-1, if not colder.

When we finally ventured out, I cooked up some bacon and eggs and toast for everyone and was soon warm. 

We all headed out to Glen Helen gorge and were greeted with another amazing backdrop with some beautiful water flowing through the bottom. This was only a 5 minute walk from where we parked the car and was the backyard for the caravan park here. We are so glad we are staying up the road, even without power or running water. Way too cramped here. 

We then drove further east to Ormiston Gorge. This had a 20 minute walk to the water hole, or a 3-4 hour loop walk through the mountains and gorge, returning via the water hole. Despite my body signalling in every possible way to take the short walk, we all “agreed” to take the loop. 

This meandered up the side of the mountains and just went on forever. The views were spectacular, but I am not sure any of the photos I took will ever highlight the enormous size of this vertical cliff faces. 

The terrain was forever changing. One minute we were in arid land dodging spikey grasses and red dust all over our shoes, next we were walking through sand and pebbles along the river beds, followed by great big boulders, all of which were changing colours every time we reached a new part of the river bed. 

We had reached what we thought was about halfway (according to my Apple Watch) when my knee started hurting and progressively got worse. Turns out that either the  description of the walk being only 7km is really wrong, or my watch doesn’t know how to calculate the hills and winding tracks, because my watch says we walked 11km. The last 2 km was extraordinarily difficult thanks to my inability to bend my right knee anymore... not very helpful clambering over boulders for 2 hours. 

Finally we reached the car again and popped some pain killers ready for the night ahead and more walks tomorrow. 

A bottle of red wine, a few bourbons and some schnitzels cooked over the fire finished off a great (but tiring day). 

Redbank Gorge.

Destination -Woodlands campground. About 180Km from Alice Springs.

The road out west is perfectly smooth, good quality and meandering through the West MacDonnell Ranges and the many floodways that cross its route. We passed by all the big name gorges such as Ellery, Stanley and Ormiston to a our destination 20Km west of Glen Helen. The grounds are part of the National Parks and cost $12.50 a night. They are equipped with an extremely clean drop toilet, free gas barbecues at each site, and an iron fire pit with a removable cooking grate. In short, they are fantastic for the location. 

About 5 minutes further up, there is a short walk into Redbank Gorge which is just stunning. 

It was less than hour return trip and a relatively easy walk and if it was an example of what we will see elsewhere , we are going to have some great days ahead. 

Back at the van, we started the fire and Tyler decided to cook the sausages over the fire rather than on the BBQ. 

The night slowly disappeared around the fire with a few glasses of red wine, and roasting Marshmallows. 

As the fire burnt out, the cold became more apparent (-1 forecast), so we all cleaned up as best as we could with the buckets of water and got into bed to keep warm. 

Non stop exploring

I thought I would show everyone that I am completely flexible in many ways, so I slept in the swag last night. The forecast 0 degrees didn’t deter me. Nor did the enclosed space. I am tough. Well.... then I tried to get in it. Apparently you need to be either a contortionist or have flexible joints to be able to get in one of these things, and neither of those descriptions can be attributed to me. I finally got down onto my knees with my backside sticking up in the air like an oversized bike rack, and realised I was stuck. There wasn’t enough space for me to gracefully lie down fully, and with nothing solid to lean on, getting up again would be harder than a rhino getting out of a muddy water hole. So I just collapsed into a heap and lay there for a moment contemplating if I was ever going to be able to get out. Then the battle with the sleeping bag began. It was twisted and doing everything it could to be upside down and inside out and just generally making it uncomfortable. Finally... I was in the bag, getting warm and now realising that I was laying on a 1” foam mattress that gave absolutely no padding to my ginormous frame and felt like I was laying on a slab of concrete. Somehow I made it through the night and somehow I managed to get myself out of the swag in the morning (mind you I am sure the people walking past as I was attempting it were on the phone calling the fire rescue truck to help lift me up). I am flexible. Just not that flexible.

The caravan park was cooking pancakes for everyone this morning, but with a line of 100 people waiting, we all chose to not go back for 3rd helpings. We headed off into the Todd St Markets and browsed the stalls, then went to visit the historic Telegraph Station park. We chose not to spend the $50(ish) to look at the old buildings but could see they were beautifully restored. 

The kids went climbing over the rocks whilst we made lunch, then we headed to meet our friends at Flynn’s Grave. Here they got on some bikes and then rode for 17km to Simpson’s Gap. We drove there and cooked up some sausages on the free public gas barbecues ready for their arrival. 

The gap was amazing and provided tons of photo opportunities 

Tomorrow we are leaving the comforts of our park and heading into the West Macdonnell Ranges Park for 3 nights. This will be a free camping spot - no Telstra coverage, no power or running water and -2 degree nights. But there are some amazing walks and gorges to visit. 

Desert Park Bird show

We really need to stop planning our visits to attractions so well. So far, we have had to get up by 7am for all but 1 morning... my camping brain is telling me to sleep in but we just haven’t managed to be able to do so yet....

Tomorrow morning is free pancakes by the Caravan Park, but at least it doesn’t start until 8:30, so there is a slight chance of an additional 30 minutes or so. 

Today, the plan was to get to the Alice Springs Desert Park by 9am to see the Dingo feeding and then follow on for other animal exhibits. Despite getting up just after 7, breakfast dragged on a bit long, plus all the preparation needed for lunch etc, we didn’t actually get there until closer to 9:15. This allowed us to walk straight into an emu discussion, followed by the Birds of Prey, which is my main goal for the day. 

The park was fascinating and was laid out very well with heaps of information and exhibits. The talks ranged from native bush tools to nocturnal animals to bush tucker. Before we knew it, the clock ticked past 2pm and we realised we still hadn’t eaten lunch yet. 

Our next visit was to the RFDS which turned into a bit of a fizzer and we only wandered through the gift shop before heading into town centre. The local Woolworths has been calling our name and we finally relented. It also helped that the BWS was right next to it and I needed a top up of my night caps as well. 

Eventually it was back to the park where they had a performer showing off his didgeridoo skills. He was actually pretty impressive for a white fella. 

Tomorrow we are off to the local markets, Telegraph Station, then catching up with friends again where the boys will ride bikes 17km to Simpson’s Gap. We will of course drive there and have a walk before heading back to catch up with yet more people we know from the kids school. 

Alice Springs

It turned out to be almost exactly the 9 hours predicted - the headwind slowed us down, Erldunda was a madhouse with nearly 50 caravans and buses either stopping for lunch or needing to buy extremely expensive fuel, plus our own stops saw us arrive at around 4:30. Check in took another 20 minutes thanks to only 2 staff with an outdated booking system and about 30  arrivals, most of which had prebooked and another few cranky ones that were turned away
This park has really big sites and feels spacious - and safe. Lots of activities for the kids for those few hours we are at the park. 

The kids were off to the pool as soon as we allowed them into the van to get to their bathers. 

It was still a balmy 27 degrees but we later found out this was a very unique day and we were to expect closer to 20 for the next few days... and checking the weather app also highlighted the -1 degree nights ahead. 

Tomorrow we are going to the Alice Springs Show. This is just a much smaller version of the bigger Royal Shows we have back home, with the same over inflated prices for over cooked food and cleverly marketed pricing for show bags worth half their marked “special” prices. 

It didn’t take long for the kids to spend their money on rides and show bags, which meant we were out by 12:30  (Yippee)

Next stop was the Anzac Hill lookout where there was some good views and lots of information on the town. 

The kids were busting for a swim again, so we went back for an hour or so and let the magic washing machine do it’s stuff. Sure enough, by the time the kids and I got back from the pool, the washing was in neat folded piles on the table all clean and waiting to be put away. 

We then piled back in the car and headed out to see the School of the Air where we learnt all about how remote kids all over Northern Australia get their schooling without leaving home. 

Lastly, we went to visit some friends who had recently moved here from The Adelaide Hills. Our two boys took off on bikes with their two boys, while Kayla did some other stuff with their daughter, leaving us to catch up over coffee and biscuits. 

Getting back to the van after dark meant cooking sausages in the dark, but thanks to my infatuation with timing the cooking and the wonderfulness of the Weber, they were cooked perfectly.