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Published: April 7th 2007
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John Flynn's Grave
with a local rock, replacing the Devil's Marble. Seems like the Devil wanted it back. (Oh, I am going to hell for that one. Actually, and reasonably, it was the Local Traditional owners that wanted the marble back) The West Macs Surprise! I’m late!
Well, I s’pose it had to happen sooner or later, and well… sooner I guess it is. Just you wait until I have started my new and very beautiful diary (thank you Sal and Emile). These entries will no doubt become boring sketches of where I have been and slept.
Well… I left you about four weekends ago… My only excuse is that I had finally found people who attempted to not sleep, partying every night, and working all day, and I tried to emulate them… which meant less time in front of a computer.
The West Macdonnell Ranges
Well, I decided on the Tuesday that if I couldn’t find anyone to go out and explore with me, I’d best organise it myself. So I decided on a tour by Emu Run (recommended by one of the thousand of tour bookers scattered through the heart of Alice Springs), out to the most popular day destination from Alice: The West Macs. I booked it by myself, awaiting twenty odd old ducks to join me… so I was happy to find that the only person on ther bus when it picked me up,
Simpson's Gap
As I said, much more impressive far away... you get an idea of the scale this thing is on. was a japanese girl in her mid twenties. There were only two more stops, the last picked up an English-French couple from Manchester, but the first, from the hotel opposite the hospital (I had picked up, rather, from the backpackers next to the hospital), was Alanna Tuxen and Jono (apologies Jono, I can’t for the life of me remember your last name). Alanna was working in ICU as a registrar, and Jono was visiting for five or so days that she had off.
And that was all. Just six of us, all in our mid twenties. I needn’t tell you it raised my opinions of organised tours a huge amount: I now believe that it is possible for them to be fun, and interesting. First we went to Simpsons Gap (Huge, and very impressive as we drove up to it). There were rock wallabies hiding in the boulders there, but we didn’t spend much time. Ross Pollock, our tour bus driver wanted us ahead of the one other bus that had pipped us out of alice (because we made an unscheduled stop at Dr Flynn’s grave, at my request. I love small tour groups!) So the next stop was
Standley Chasm. It was really red and glowey, but the best bit was that we all clambered (even the Japanese girl, Megumi, who was wearing a short denim skirt) all over the rocks, and went really much deeper into the chasm than the flat floor of the much photographed grannie area. We spent a fair bit of time in there, but still made it past the other bus… then didn’t really see them again. Aaaah. The advantages of the off season.
Next stop was the Ochre Pits, a male sacred site, where yellow ochre was mined for ceremonies. Only the men could mine it, even today, the women do not go there. It was a beautiful site, with many different colours in the sandstone layers. The ochre was particularly prized, as it contained quarts crystals, giving it a shimmering, almost oily sheen. Th local aboriginals were very much living on subsistence, and so, spending eight or more hours a day finding food, their special ceremonies were (are) quite simplified. This was lore according to Ross Pollock. Perhaps to be taken with a grain of salt, as this was also the man who told us that didgeridoos were a Northern Australian
Standley Chasm
This is my favourite photo of the day. If you want some of the glowing walls, I recommend a google image search. thing only, as there were no termite mounds in Central Australia (I saw one within minutes of his saying this, although it wasn’t one of those impressive eight-foot-high things. And that Aboriginals didn’t trade… when clearly there is evidence of trading relationships between Indonesians and Northern Australians, at least at the time of white colonisation of the north.
But back to the story Yes.. well. The next stops were all about the swimming. First Ormiston Gorge, where the bottom was muddy and slick, but we braved it anyway. Next was Glen Helen Gorge, where we spoke to some locals having the day out, and wandered around the Lodge, the perfect half way point on a self drive tour, but it was getting to be mid-afternoon for us. To get to the hole we had to wander down the dry creek bed of the finke River, large, grey rocks and impossible green rushes, slightly faded brown to believability. The hole itself had a lovely gravel entry, and was bordered on each end by green, green rushes, and on each side by steep walls, that were, at their bases, emminently climbable. I went out to swim to the other
Standley Chasm.
Oh, ok, here you are. end (I did this at each of the water holed we visited, with a lady from another tour group (you couldn’t escape them at Glen Helen, they arrived all day, staggered so the place was always busy, but never overcrowded), until the weeds brushing against our legs as if to clasp us to a watery grave freaked us both out, and we returned to the relative safety of the deep, bottomless water.
My swimming companion of this hole had grown up on a farm, and had swum in damns all her life, and so was unfazed by the colour and murkiness of the water.
Lastly we went to Ellery Creek Big Hole, purportedly the prettiest of the three. My favourite (contrary child that I am) was Glen Helen Hole, but hey, the joy of Ellery Creek was that is was so close to Alice. And full of people. We swam and had afternoon tea there, enjoying the last of the cool water. There were some boys jumping into the hole from rocks that were about the height of a second story balcony… I’m just glad it was Alanna, and not me (for once), who said “Let’s go before
we have to do something heroic for those boys. It makes me feel less old and spoil-sporty.
The humidity of Alice Springs (at that time) was such that you walked out of the water hole, and by the time you reached your towel, five meters away, you barely needed to use it. So to keep cool, I soaked my hat in the murky waters, and put it on my head to try to get some evaporation cooling going. Which was great as far as it went, but I ended up with some pretty warm water around the hat band.
We returned to Alice hot, tired but having had a fantastic day. Actually, I was utterly exhausted, and barely pushed myself through staying up to make dinner and eat a bit of it… which was when I think I realised that for me, at least, it was more than exhaustion.
I woke the next day sick as a dog. I’m kind of disappointed that I didn’t go to ED and get an xray, I reckon I had pneumonia. I worked that entire week including two fifteen hour shifts regardless, and finally started to get better around Friday…
Ormiston
Photo borrowed shamelessly. It was muddy and not very nice when I was there, and I could not find the beauty that Dad found. … I have just realised how big this post is… I will break it up, and start a new one, so you don’t get downloading fatigue.
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