Late last year, our Utah ski buddies, Pam and Howdy
told us they'd like to come visit Australia again. We thought, "Okay, they've seen a few bits of NSW, let's show them a different part of Oz." The plan unfolded. We said, "You fly to Yulara, and we'll meet you there with our camper trailer and tent."
Leaving a still relatively warm Sydney on Sunday May 3, Susie and I headed west via Broken Hill, the nights becoming ever colder. Making good time, despite a hiccup with an Anderson plug detaching itself and getting ground off on the road, we had time to make a little detour off the bitumen into the Painted Desert near Oodnadatta and then back to the Stuart Hwy at Marla.
We had wanted to have a look at the Painted Desert for a few years, and weren't disappointed, being rewarded with a couple of hours wandering in the beautifully coloured, eroded outliers of an ancient range of hills.
Back in the car we arrived at Oodnadatta, and just had to make a stop at the famous Pink Roadhouse. Well, if someone goes to the trouble of painting their roadhouse pink, you do, don't you? Fairly forgettable really, but half a kay up the road was the Pub. Susie said she'd shout me a beer. It was cold and delicious, but we didn't stay long as the local indigenous people were playing the juke box at ear destroying volume. Another 200km on the track and one doozy of a bulldust hole and we were back on the bitumen at Marla, where we camped for the night behind the roadhouse. Camped next to us was a German couple who were cycling through the Centre. Nice people.
Arriving at Yulara mid afternoon the next day we set up the trailer and tent ready for the arrival of our mates the next day. We picked them up at the airport mid afternoon, and showing no compassion for their tiredness after their long flight Salt Lake City, LA, Sydney,Yulara, took them out to Uluru for sunset viewing and a glass of bubbles. I have to say, they held up remarkably well, but crashed fairly early that night!
For the next 2 days we did the Rock and Kata Tjuta, doing a Ranger guided walk and talk, and circumnavigating Uluru, and then a couple of different walks at Kata Tjuta - the Valley of the Winds and Walpa Gorge.
The Mala Walks with the rangers are a really good way for we whiteys to start to understand the local Anangu people's reverence for Uluru and the lands surrounding it, and their Tjukurpa - their legends, laws, and culture, and why they don't like us to climb it. After listening to their stories about the landscape, it's history and culture, I no longer feel the need.
Next morning we stocked up before heading north towards the next part of our tour - Kings Canyon, Palm Valley, and the West MacDonnell Ranges.
Arriving at our camp spot around midday, we then fitted in a ranger guided walk along the bottom of Kings Canyon before dinner and next morning set off to do the much longer walk around the rim.
During our wanderings we naturally arrived at the top of the big undercut cliffs. I sat down on a rock outcrop just next to the edge so as to get a shot along the cliffline with the others on top. For some reason they started shouting and waving. I thought, "What...... ??" Only after I'd taken the shot and moved away from the edge towards the others did I find out that the shelf I'd been sitting on was not much more than a foot thick, hanging out over a couple of hundred feet of air! Ooops.
Probably the highlight of Kings Canyon is the Garden of Eden, a permanent waterhole down in the bowels of the upper canyon. There were a few people down by the water enjoying the serenity of the place when we arrived, but they left shortly after, leaving us alone in this beautiful, quiet place.
Next destination - Palm Valley via 200kms of the gravel and sometimes very corrugated Mereenie Loop. Palm Valley is named for the stands of Red Cabbage Palms found only in the eco climate found in this area. The 20 odd km 4WD track into the valley constantly crisscrosses the bed of the thankfully mostly dry Finke River on sand and stones until you finally arrive at a beautiful if basic camping area. There are a number of walks through and above the valley, but we only had time for one. That night we sat around a fire listening to a chat from local ranger Diana, part French, part American, and very knowledgeable. We wished we had planned to stay more than one night in Palm Valley.
Moving right along, our destination for the day was Glen Helen Resort, checking out a number of places along the way. First was the tiny house that legendary Aboriginal painter Albert Namitjira built and lived in with his wife and, I think, 8 kids. Then Serpentine Gorge, where Howdy and I climbed to a lookout at the top to peer into the enclosed valley which opens out behind the narrow walled gorge. Finally, the Ochre Pits, where for thousands of years aboriginals (men only) have collected different colours of ochre from the cliff faces to make into paint. From there we tooled into Glen Helen Resort, at G H Gorge, and found ourselves a nice grassy camp spot.
The Pound Walk at Ormiston Gorge was next on the list. This is a 6km walk of about 3 hrs which takes you up over a ridge and down into the huge, cliff enclosed "pound" behind the gorge, onto the bed of the Finke River which rises in this valley, and finally out via the narrow red walled gorge itself. A short way along the track there was a sign left by rangers warning of the need to wade through very cold water. We figured if that were true, the dreaded water could only be in the gorge itself, so decided to go that way first. No mandatory wades, so we continued backtracking up the river bed, trying to keep track of the little triangular route markers. Naturally, we lost them. We weren't lost of course. Just not on the designated track. Susie and I knew the track came out of a V saddle in the cliffs way over on the right. It was just a matter of finding our way there, and hopefully cutting the proper track somewhere along the way. Picking our way through spikey clumps of spinifex wasn't adding to our enjoyment!
Finally, of course, we cut the track and continued on our merry way for a most enjoyable walk.
That afternoon we did a bit more 4WDing into Roma Gorge, mainly to look at some ancient petroglyphs, thought to be 10,000 years or more old. Back at camp, we cleaned up and finished off the day with a meal and a very good red in the excellent restaurant at the resort. Yum!
For an encore, just as Susie and I had done 3 years ago, we climbed Mt Sonder, 4th highest mountain in the Northern Territory. Can't remember how high it is (nothing is very high in Oz!), but it's 8 kms of steady climbing to the top and then the reverse route down. A 6 hour round trip with lunch at the top and great views of our ancient land.
It was this afternoon, after our return to base at GHR, that Howdy became firm friends with one of our best known native birds - a galah. Lacking the imagination at the time to come up with something better, we named him Fred. Just after our arrival, Fred landed on Howdy's shoulder, and pretty much stayed there for the evening. Next morning he was back for another nuzzle into Howdy's ear before we left.
Waving goodbye to Fred, we headed for Alice Springs, stopping off at Standley Chasm and Simpsons Gap along the way. Had dinner at the "pub" at the campground, where a ranger from the nearby Alice Springs Desert Park gave a chat about native Australian fauna, helped out by a few "props" like an 8 foot (juvenile!) python and a number of our best looking lizards. Pam and Howdy were listening very attentively as our ranger explained how we have 8 of the 10 most venomous snakes in the world, starting with numero uno, the Inland Taipan, but that as long as you wear long pants they're unlikely to kill you as their fangs are very short. Funny, we couldn't get either of them to cuddle the python, though!
After a great intro like that from our young lady ranger friend, we had to visit the Desert Park in the morning. Could have spent the day there. Birds of prey, including a show from a magnificent Wedge Tailed Eagle amongst others, dingoes, emus, a nocturnal house, and chats about them all from the rangers, and much more. But time was getting on and we had to be moving north.
At 2 o'clock we rolled north out of Alice towards the next stage of our adventure - Kakadu and the Top End.
