Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Alice Springs
September 15th 2010

Published: September 16th 2010

Alice Springs Desert Festival.

Well this is it! We are officially headed for home. How do we feel? The biggest issue with travelling is that you do miss family and friends and the interactions associated with them. The best aspect is that you are constantly doing and seeing new things. The experience is wonderful and is one that everyone should attempt in their life. It doesn’t need to be in a van or by camping. That is more economical and socially beneficial but what we are out there to do is to see the fantastic landscape of this huge country. So we feel glad that we took the trip and are still amazed at the variety of things we have been able to do.

By having done a circuit (with onnly 600 klm from Three Ways (NT) to Mt Isa to do some day), we can now say we at least know the major tourist areas well and have come to realize that you could travel for the rest of your life and still not see everything. For example, we have done some gravel roads (over 100 klm each way on the trip to Millstream NP), but there are a multitude of inland roads

The Todd River

Believe it or not, it does flow. And we saw it!

that can be travelled. That is not us though, as we are bitumen huggers by nature. We like smooth rather than rough! I guess that makes us five star campers!

The car and van are holding together really well and, apart from a few small issues, have caused us no real grief. With more than 21,000 klms on the car’s clock and 12,500 klms covered by the van, the two vehicles have proven that they were good choices.

As usually happens, we have met a lot of really nice people along the way and hope to stay in contact with a number of them going forward as we have done with friends we met on the east coast in 2008.

KATHERINE

As we mentioned in the trip to Darwin, going south we had decided to stay a couple of nights in Katherine. A number of people had suggested it was worthwhile taking a trip out to Edith Falls (Nitmiluk National Park). Again we found the ‘lawnscape’ driving into the Low Level Caravan Park dotted with trees a very pleasant drive into the sites. We took up the same site we had when we previously passed through.

Kite in Flight

Alice Springs Desert Park.

Dinner at the bistro was good and Rhonda stayed on to watch the free movie.

The drive out to Nitmiluk NP was only 40 klm and an easy trip. The Edith Falls were set back behind a foreground of ‘swimming’ pool that was largely shallow. There were full facilities and a number of accesses to the pool. It was well worth a visit even though the Litchfield falls made Edith look somewhat puny.

The next day we thought we would go and have lunch overlooking the Katherine River at the restaurant attached to the information centre near Katherine (Nitmiluk) Gorge. It had been raining in the morning but had warmed up considerably. It was very pleasant and the ‘Barra and Cbips’ was huge! As previously mentioned, there was no need to do the gorge tour as we had done it previously. The same applied to the Mataranka hot springs.

DALY WATERS

On this leg of the journey south, there are a number of overnight stays and Daly Waters was one of them. The main attraction is the pub and its eccentricities. ‘You have to eat there’ we had been told so we duly booked in for

A Weird Pub

So much to see here!

dinner. In the meantime we had been told to meet the guy at the gate of the park and he would show us where to go. What does he do? He noses our car right up to the back of a motor home with a dog tied up to its rear! ‘No problem, you’ve got room to back up to get out’ he says, ‘or he will have gone so you can just drive out’! As you can imagine, I calmly accepted!!

The pub was something else. It was a showpiece of nic nacs ranging from a helicopter on a shed roof, to a dummy hanging over a dunny, bras, panties, t-shirts and a host of other things on display. The dinner was fine and the social aspect was good too.

TENNANT CREEK

Another overnight stay. The park was okay and we propped in a big ‘drive-through’ site so we were able to leave the car hooked up to the van. With little to do, we went across to have ‘happy hour’ at the bistro and then decided to have fish and chips. The fish had to go back to be cooked properly and in return we

Devil's Marbles

Just south of Tennant Creek.

received an apologetic complimentary jam and cream (real) pastry each for desert.

On the way down to Alice Springs, we stopped to look at the ‘Devil’s Marbles’. Out in the middle of nowhere is a significant outcrop of massive boulders. Many of the big rounded boulders were perched precariously on top of others and provided real photo opportunities. The site is on a short bypass road about 130 klms south of Tennant Creek.

ALICE SPRINGS

The plan was to stay five nights in Alice Springs and then go around to kings Canyon for a couple of nights. We discovered that a full day trip was available from Alice so we added another night. It was raining when we were due to leave so another night was added. So we had a week in Alice Springs.

As with Darwin and Katherine, we had seen many of the sights and they included Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). So we focused on the things we had not done.

Ont the first night in th McDonnell Ranges Tourist park we went up to the Basketball Court for a concert. Geoff O'Donnell entertained us for a couple

Wily Gum

Kings Canyon. Looking out to plains.

of hours with a host of Aussie songs. It was great fun.

Desert Park

Just a few klms out of town there is a tourist attraction that has focused on allowing tourists to explore flora and fauna of the area in its natural habitat. They have done a fantastic job and we enjoyed a number of hours checking it out. We arrived just in time to see a display of birds of prey (Kites and an Owl) similar to the display they do at the Healesville Sanctuary.

There is a huge building housing nocturnal creatures. They have created an appearance of nighttime light. For us it was terrific to see Bilbies, desert rats, snakes and lizards in their natural habitat and with lots of room to move about.

The discovery trail covers several kilometers and gives an impressive display of bushes, trees. Clay pans and sand pans, birds, kangaroos, lizards, etc. It is probably one of the best displays we have seen.

Todd River

If you see the Todd River flowing three times, you are a true Northern Territorian! The usually sandy river flows so infrequently that it takes years to see it flow

King Creek Falls

Kings Canyon.

three times. Ah, but not this year! So far it has flowed five times! Last year Alice Springs had only 76 mm of its average 250 mm rainfall In 2010 the rainfall has exceeded 600 mm and the year is only three quarters gone.

I guess that makes us one third Territorians! Is that like being one third pregnant?

West McDonnell Ranges

Our first tour from Alice Springs was to the West McDonnell Ranges. The day got off to an unusual start when fifteen minutes out a couple and their two children alerted the driver that they were on the wrong tour. They thought they were on a pick up bus and the driver had them on our tour list. Eventually they were picked up to go on their correct tour and whilst waiting, we got to see the famous gum trees that Albert Namatjira painted in the foreground of the McDonnell Ranges back in the 1950’s ( a bonus).

Simpson’s Gap was not new to us but it is impressive how, over 315 million years, the Roe Creek has worn a path down through the ranges. Similarly, we had seen Standley Chasm previously, but the

Bilby (cute eh?)

Desert Park Alice Springs

walk to it and the narrow crevice you walk through still impress. This time we did not see that short time when the sun breaks through into the chasm (around midday) and makes it even more spectacular.

Ormiston Gorge is first seen from a high lookout and its high rock faces tower over the river. It looks much better from the higher vantage point than down at river level. As we have discovered with all of these gorges Ormiston has its unique features.

As you know, the indigenous communities love painting on bark, in caves and on their own bodies to prepares for corroborees and other ritual events. For thousands of years they have used natural ochre (sandstone) of many and varied colours to do these things. Of course paintings are now done largely in acrylics. Our next stop off was at the Ochre Pits that were used in the area for gathering the different coloured ochres used for painting. Women also used the ochre but were not allowed to enter the pits. They had to ask a man to collect it for them!

Glen Helen Gorge was the last of the gorges visited and it was

Percussionists

Alice Springs Desert Festival.

located near the end of the sealed section of road. The walk in was a little further than the others but the visual reward was worth it. A large permanent water hole protected the gorge from close examination but added to the scenery.

On the return journey we called into Ellery Creek Bighole for a swim (that no-one had because the water was too cold!). On the way in a 4WD coming towards us was graced (?) with a naked male lying on his back on the roof. The females enjoyed the view but the males felt he was short of a suntan and was sadly lacking in certain quarters. The young guys were fooling around and should have been more careful. There was more than a penile gravel rash at stake with the ‘speed’ (?) they were doing (no pun intended). Again the setting was very nice and we had a shower of rain only to be followed by a double rainbow. The five Europeans (a Swiss miss, two French girls (all pretty young things) and Father and son from near Croatia) with us were very impressed but the pot(s) of gold were nowhere to be found!

Up, up and up we climbed.

Kings Canyon.

The day was well worthwhile and, compared to prices in the north/west, inexpensive.

Desert Festival

The Desert Festival commenced Friday 10th September with a street parade down Todd Mall and over the road to the oval. We decided to attend and really enjoyed the procession.

Afterwards, there was a concert on the oval and that was principally enacted by school kids, both indigenous and westerners. It was terrific and we stayed until 9.00 pm. We left because the bus pickup the next morning was for 6.00 am to go to Kings Canyon.

What a waste of time! The ‘Gap’ was closed off by police because there had been a serious accident. We queued for an hour to get through. The police then came along to tell us that the road could be closed for another two to four hours! They told us that a 40 klm detour would see us home in half an hour so off we went. We finally got to bed at round midnight!

Kings Canyon

A 6.00 am pick up was one thing but we weren’t due home until 11.30 pm! We decided that a tour from Alice Springs would

Edith Falls

Near Katherine in the Nitmiluk NP.

save pulling the van into Kings Canyon and back out again. Added to that is the fact that tour guides can pass on information that you won’t get by doing the area yourself. That proved to be true. We were shown some vantage points that were off the beaten track.

The bus collected us and off we went to Erldunda 200 klms south. Breakfast was handed to us when we got on the bus so Erldunda was a comfort stop and a change of vehicle for us as the bus was going on to Uluru. Another 230 klms and we were at Kings Creek Station for another comfort stop. From there it was out to the canyon.

Mark, our guide pointed to a steep conical hill and said ‘that’s the way up’. We huffed and puffed our way to the top in order to do the Rim Walk. There were times at this stage when we wondered whether we had taken on too much. Oh what the hell! Just stick with it. And we did, thankfully. Unlike other tours, this was more visual and less verbal in nature. There is a walk along the floor of the canyon

Wren

Alice Springs Desert Park. Unusual colouring.

that takes about an hour but we chose to do the rim walk and that takes 3.5 hours. We wonder whether the floor walk gives a true perspective of the canyon as the lookout viewed from above didn’t seem to show the Kings Creek falls or any of the other fantastic features we saw along the way. At every turn there is another spectacular scene.

The Kings Creek Falls drop to the floor from the ‘Garden of Eden’ pool and that is about half way to the top of the canyon. The creek winds its way down to the pool and then tumbles down to the floor of the canyon to push on out onto the plains. Although it was a challenging walk, we were not extended beyond our capabilities but were richly rewarded with fantastic scenery. By the time we had dinner and a few drinks back at Erldunda we were ready for home. When all is said and done, it was a long day but we managed it home and into bed feeling a sense of achievement. Kings Canyon rates highly on our list of things to do.

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