Looking down on Alice Springs from Anzac Hill with Heavitree Gap in background
This was certainly not the time of the year to visit Alice. We have found it hard to walk around in the grip of hot, dry winds desiccating our skins and sun beating down relentlessly. It has made us very aware of the calibre of the early explorers and settlers that did without all the creature comforts we are reliant upon to make life bearable. Not to mention those who died from this merciless heat and dehydration. Our air conditioner has been running non-stop. The fridge has worked overtime to keep us supplied with cooled water. It is not inefficient it is unable to keep up with the demand. Within Skiv the amount of warm, solar heated water we’ve consumed, in desperation to quench a thirst must be a record! For our sanity we have decided that from here on to take powered sites in temperatures of 40 plus to run Getaway’s air conditioning unit.
We walked Todd Mall to see its points of historic interest and to get a feel of Alice’s heart and inhabitants. We walked Desert Park – a particularly wonderful window on desert ecology incorporated within the town limits which is another remarkable attribute. A dramatic feature was the enormous screen in the cinema that dropped away once the film was over to reveal the majestic MacDonnell Range. And we walked the Telegraph Repeater Station alongside the Todd River with its “spring” (really a water hole named after the wife of Todd, the telegraphic superintendent of the Overland Line) that eventually led to the town of Stuart being renamed Alice Springs to avoid confusion. While in Darwin the headline “Lost Brit Lampooned” in the Northern Territory News had caught our attention and on reading about the “bumbling Brit” who wandered off a well trodden path at the Telegraph Station, became disorientated and spent four days lost in the bush! He was rescued after calling the police on his mobile phone and came back looking like a freshly cooked lobster. Before leaving Alice Springs the bumbling Brit proceeded to get lost a second time! We didn’t understand the situation never having been there on reading the article at the time. Now of course it sprang to mind being at the Station and no ways could we credit being lost for a day, let alone four.
We finally had the pleasure of meeting Anne & Will Cormack after all the years of being told that if we ever got to “Alice” we should look them up. First, by Coralie when we immigrated, later by cousin Anthea after she raved about her stay in their Nthaba B & B Cottage and then more often by his sister Liz! Our phone call immediately elicited an invitation to dinner in their beautiful home where we spent a wonderful evening in their company joined by their son and grandsons. We didn’t see the roses Anne is renowned for as kangaroos had devoured them never the less her garden’s a fine example of what can be achieved in such aridity – the Oleander frontage the showpiece in our minds!
Out we rolled Wednesday morning down the broad valley between the serrated mountain ranges of the West MacDonnell National Park to Glen Helen. En route we stopped briefly at the memorial to John Flynn, the founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. His ashes are interred in the memorial topped by one of the Devil’s Marbles brought in to honour his achievements.
The sealed road ended at the Glen Helen Homestead where we camped for the night looking up at the towering red cliff face of the Pacoota Range. The Finke river said to be the oldest river in the world and 700km long, runs through the Glen Helen Gorge. A large waterhole lies at the entrance preventing access into the gorge. This is one of nine permanent waterholes to be found along the length of the entire river. In the afternoon we drove to the Ormiston Gorge – a breathtakingly beautiful gorge with red walls that simply soared upwards on the one side. After George had a swim in a waterhole that was too rich in algae for Lea’s liking, we sat on the shady side of the gorge absorbing the silence broken at odd times by a crow’s harsh chattering.
Ormiston Gorge
We drove a section of the gravel road, a short cut to Kings Canyon, to gain a feel for its condition before we purchased the permit required to travel through Aboriginal land the next day. Stepping out to go to the ablution block that night a lovely sight met our eyes. The Homestead below us had floodlit the red cliffs. As we stood in the balmy air admiring them the first drops of rain began thudding into the dust around us. We turned off the air conditioner in error thinking we’d have a cool night of rain but within the hour it was stifling again.
As the orange glow of dawn broke behind us (part of our new “cool” travel strategy) we carefully made our way down the Namatjira portion of the road that led to Tnorala Conservation Reserve (Gosse’s Bluff) where we’d planned to have our breakfast. This extraordinary ring of rugged hills that rises abruptly from the surrounding plains is an ancient meteorite crater. George stopped a couple of times to photograph the early morning sun hi-lighting the rim. The track leading towards the crater looked dreadful and required 4WD that we decided against a visit and on the next rise further down our road we stopped to breakfast overlooking the Bluff. Entering Getaway we found the fridge door catch had snapped and our tray had shaken off the seat. Not bad for 60km of off-road travel! MacGiver George fixed the fridge making a catch with an ice-cream lid and taped the door for extra strength. Over breakfast we decided the road was no worse than The Savannah Way so we would take the Mereenie loop road that we had the permit for.
Back on the move we came to the sign-posted entrance to the Tnorala Conservation Reserve. 4WD was recommended yet the road looked fine. We took a chance and turned in only to find it narrowed and looked pretty sandy. With the crater so near we couldn’t give up. Executed a U-turn, unhitched Getaway and off we went in Skiv. Most surprised to find that we were able to drive through a gap into the centre of the crater. To stand and gaze around at this remarkable astro-geological feature, 5 km in diameter created 140 million years ago with the impact of a comet apparently one million times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb brought home the climatic repercussions of these large scale explosion events that periodically led to the mass extinction of life. We didn’t linger too long and returned to Getaway.
Gosse's Bluff - Tnorala Conservation Reserve
The Mereenie Loop Road is 154km of gravel and for the first hour we were lulled into a sense of complacency. The road was in good condition, the scenery was interesting, more rain seemed to have fallen in this area suppressing the dust with the odd puddle attracting some brumbies with foals. Along the road we could see a mass of footprints which George recognised as camels, confirmed in the next creek bed where we saw three which pleased us no end. This turned to further excitement much further on when we rounded a corner to see a herd of about 60 camels disturbed by the noise of our rig loping away. Grabbing his camera George abandoned Skiv and rushed over the rise they had disappeared behind. Before long he was back beckoning Lea to join him to listen to the incredible guttural bellowing emanating from these ungainly creatures as they headed up a drainage line. We intercepted them further up the drag allowing us good views of the young ones concealed amongst the herd. The heyday of these introduced freight animals came to an end in the 1890’s with motorised transport. Many were released to run feral in the Central and Western deserts expanding to become the biggest population of wild camels in the world. We spotted several other herds on our journey and the road was littered with their spoor.
Herd of wild camels - 70km N of Kings Canyon
There is only one authorised road side stop within the permit area of this road and ridiculously it turned out to be 27km from our destination. As we grew steadily restless and tired, the road became more corrugated and required even slower navigation. Approaching a corner two 44 gallon drums each with the words “Lift um foot” attracted our attention …. completing the S-bend was another drum scrawled with the same white paint saying “Put um down”. In our hot and hungry state we were further weakened by a fit of giggles! A rock painted “Ginty’s Lookout – 14kms” dashed our humour and the road degenerated further. Crawling into “Jump-Up Lookout” / rest area, as officially named in our permit, we stiffly climbed out of Skiv and opened Getaway’s door to mayhem. The fridge had sheered the screws put in at Broome and once again broken out of the wooden cabinet. As a result the fridge door had broken through the taping and opened spreading the two vegetable drawers out over the floor. The kitchen drawer catch had unscrewed allowing the drawer to fall out shedding our utensils everywhere. Bottles of water, butter and cheese had flown off shelves and burst open. A cupboard door was hanging lopsidedly from one hinge. Cleaning up and seeing to minor repairs in a confined space with heat melting us as well as our groceries hardly made for a good lunch break … and flies came pouring in for the party!
Anxiety building over the fridge and no means of securing it Lea preferred to keep it propped into place with her back for the next 27kms and arrived in Kings Canyon resort looking somewhat shell-shocked, adamant we’ll never travel extensive dirt roads again! Hot and bothered “yesterday man” George immediately began trying to solve the problem of the fridge. Having seen how the fridge had been secured in Broome George now had a good understanding of what was involved. Refusing a refreshing shower and no cool water to quench our thirsts he went off in search of the resort workshop where he was able to scrounge a piece of aluminium and buy some life saving ice to conquer our thirst on his way back. Thereafter, with his own tools he was able to re-secure our fridge - probably in a more stable manner than ever before. We were too exhausted to think of exploring our surrounds that evening let alone think of activities for our next day. Nor could we get up in the night to collect our towels outside when the rain beat down on the caravan and thunder rolled over and above the sound of the air conditioner.
Soon after dawn we were up to find the night’s weather had been more noise than wet and before breakfast set off into the Watarrka National Park for our first visit to Kings Canyon. With a fair amount of cloud cover around we were sorry we hadn’t thought to bring breakfast with us as the conditions were ideal for doing the Rim Walk. Instead we walked up Kings Creek along the floor of the canyon to a platform giving views of the sheer canyon walls before returning to camp for breakfast. We were content to spend the heat of the day reading, writing and being still! Our intentions to return to the canyon for sunset were blown by an unexpected summer thunderstorm accompanied by a lot of lightning, some a little too close for comfort. It cooled things down nicely and while the storm continued to rumble and grumble around us for most of the night the sweet smelling breezes it spawned meant we could do without the air conditioner for a change.
We move on tomorrow at first light to do the rim walk and then make tracks for Uluru, so we are cutting this week shorter than usual.
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