Alice Springs and the Macdonnell Ranges

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Picture a small bush town with lots of leafy gum trees, add a good measure of aboriginal art, a dash of trendy cafes, a sprinkle of cosmopolitan flavour and a pinch of sophistication, and you’ve got the very likeable, unpretentious Alice Springs, a town as lovely as it’s name.

We loved simply walking around town and being part of it all. The aboriginal art impressed us as did the price it was bringing. There are more art galleries here than anywhere else in the world within the same sized area.

Being a country boy from way back, Gavin has always loved the didgeridoo and wanted to play. You guessed it, he bought one. How embarrassingly touristy is that! We’ve both had a couple of lessons and so far we’ve learned how to play some rude noises. Listening to us at the moment is more a case of didgeridon’t than didgeridoo.

We had our favourite little eating place in the mall, where we’d watch the parrots in the bougainvillea and listen to the busker singing. It’s all very laid back with no airs and graces.

The Alice gets the thumbs up from us.

The Macdonnell Ranges run east and west from Alice Springs for a couple of few hundred kilometres and it is here that you can see the results of the great upheaval of 300 million years ago. Layers of sand, clay etc had been laid down in layers under the inland sea and they were raised up and tilted vertically to form the most incredible landscape. I’ve added photos for you to get excited about it too.

We spent hours trekking and photographing slopes and hills that we thought were mesmerizing and are amazed when we find others don’t take time to even look. We feel justified now for feeling like we do as at the camp ground, on our last night, there were a group of third year uni students on a field trip who were having a briefing about the next day. We moved up in the dark to the back of the group and listened in. They were told that the Alice Springs area is the best example of vertical tilting in the world and how privileged they were to be able to see it. That’s exactly how we feel about it too.

It took us so long to drive the 13 km into N’Dhala Gorge as we had to keep stopping and taking photos of crazy rocky cliffs. At the gorge itself we had fun trying to find some of the aboriginal carvings and felt sooooo clever when we did. Somehow I don’t think we were the first to discover them but it felt pretty good any way. The carvings are patterns that have been pitted into the rock and can be quite worn and hard to see, especially when they are in amongst a million other rocks. We didn’t know anything about the Macdonnell Ranges before, so it was a bonus for us to find something so unexpectedly interesting.

The scale of Ormiston Gorge is huge and we couldn’t help but be impressed. We followed the path that wound up the side of the cliff to a lookout jutting out over the pools and sandy beaches far below. The wind was blowing hard and I thought I was going to lose my mushroom hat over the edge, which may not have been a bad thing, you may be thinking. Don’t worry, because if I do, I have a smaller version - my champignon hat.

We disturbed a rock wallaby on the way down and near the bottom he stood still for us to photograph him. It’s a rare occurrence for us to see wildlife except for birds, crocodiles and mosquitoes. There were some rock wallabies in the gorges in WA and some lone wallabies crossing the road at dusk but not much else. When driving out west years ago there were mobs of kangaroos and emus and lots of goannas and snakes on the road. The only large kangaroos we’ve seen have been roadkill, mainly in Queensland. One day Gavin thought he saw an emu but I missed it and there was one small goanna beside the road, also in WA. We’ve travelled a lot of miles so where are they all?

The Northern Territory has four weeks of school holidays now, which is lovely, as there are children everywhere we go and it reminds me so much of work! How I miss it all.

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Photos

“Didge” and his new toy
His raw talent is amazing...

East Macdonnell Ranges
These rocks were under the sea, then pushed up and tilted 300 million years ago and being eroded ever since.

N’Dhala Gorge, East Macdonnell Ranges
We found a lot of carvings around this area. There are some etched circles in the centre of the photo.

Ormiston Gorge, West Macdonnell Ranges
Looking a long way down the rocky slope to the bottom of the gorge. Those are tall trees but they look like bushes from the lookout

Rock wallaby
They’re cute looking and are very agile on the cliffs.

Olive Pink Botanic Gardens, Alice Springs
Yes, it definitely is the botanic gardens! It reminds me of my garden at home.

Devils Marbles
They cover a larger area than we thought. Some of the rocks are huge!

Comments

[Julie Hansen]

Keep "blogging". It's great to hear from you again. Remember, it is the down hill run to being back at work so enjoy every last centimetre of the road ahead of you. love to you both

[Gavin and Michelle]

Enjoying every minute of it
We've certainly tried to get the most out of every minute as who knows if we'll get the chance to do it all again. It will be good to see everyone again soon though.