The West Macdonnell Ranges

Tuesday
We had a bit of a slow start, as always with a large group of people, and the others were waiting for their transport, so we left first to see Simpson's Gap on the way. Yet another spectacular river gap through the rugged red rocks. Back on the road and it was at least another hour till we made it to Ormiston Gorge. If I thought the 'Gaps' were spectacular I hadn't seen nothing. The walk up to the Ghost Gum lookout winds around the rugged spinifex dotted hillside, then you walk up the last bit of hill and look up and the red mountain range takes your breath away. The enormity of the rugged red cliffs, stretching on for kilometres down the huge river valley. There had been a bit of rain a few weeks ago and there is so much green contrasting red rock.

Wednesday

Today we set out to walk Ormiston Pound, a 7km loop which takes you through the river bed, up to a plateau, over some hills and back to the river valley. It sounds pretty basic but the scenery is so spectacular. My legs hurt now because of all the rock hopping and a lot of the path is over lose scree. The final part of the walk has you cross the river. You need to wade up to your undies. To say the water was cold was an understatement, it was freezing, but it was pretty funny to see everyone going across. We sent the group of Scouts out ahead of the adults which worked really well, no Scott for the day. Lloyd and Rex walked the whole way, a 5 hr walk with no complaints. Looking forward to truly hiking with our packs tomorrow, however, the youngest boys and Evan plus Ma Grylls with a sprained ankle will drive to the next camp site.

 

Hike Prep.

Over the next few days we welcomed those coming for the hike and saw a few things around town including the market on Sunday and the Cultural precinct. On the final night in Alice we invited the Alice Springs scout people to have dinner with us and we cooked up a huge spag bol. There were almost 30 of us and 17 of them and it was really great to get to know them and say thanks for having us. They were very pleased to be there and told us that since they can remember they have never had a group (who was using their hall) have them for a meal, which was kind of sad. They are a great bunch of people, very friendly and welcoming.
So now we were pretty much ready to hike.

NT

Friday
We were given a true Territory welcome as we came into Alice after a very long drive from Coober Pedy. It just happened to be 1 July, Territory Day, and every man and his dog was letting off fire works in the street. After getting in contact with Steve, the Alice Springs group leader, we found the Scout hall, met Curly the care taker and set up the camper.
Then into the Show for some dinner and the official fire works.
After travelling through so much monotonous flat country I hadn't expected Alice to be right at the foot of a mountain. Well, not really a mountain, but compared to what we'd come through it was a mountain. There is a gap about 100m wide which divides the East and West Macdonnell Ranges and the Todd River, the train track and the road all pass between this magnificent gap between the ranges, where it seems the red rocks plunge deep underground. And then your in the suburbs.

Saturday
We'd considered going back to the show to see some of the local pavilions, however, I didn't really think it was going to be worth the entry fee, and besides, the rocks were calling me. We headed to the East Macdonnell Ranges and we were not disappointed.
Only about 15 mins out of town is Emily Gap, another beautiful gap in the range where the Emily river flows through. Red cliffs, pink sandy river bed and white ghost gums. There was even Aboriginal rock paintings about three caterpillars. The kids enjoying climbing the red rock ledges and were disappointed to move onto Jessie Gap, however, there was more of the same and climbing to be done.
Another 50km east was Trephina Gorge were we stopped for lunch. Evan was pretty happy to find some mud puddles on the way in and covered the car in red mud, now we fit in around here.
We decided to walk around the gorge and it was truly spectacular. Red angular rocks with green spinifex grass and other small shrubs. Ghost gums besides the river and the amazing red bluff behind us. The walk took us down off the top of the gorge and along the river bed. There were a few small pools of water. The kids climbed the rocks.
Parts of the walk reminded me of parts of the Pilbara and Kimberley with the beautiful angular red rocks and gorges. This is what we had come to see and we were not disappointed.
On the way back out we took a side trip down a 4wd track to a rock hole. A fun 4wd for those driving, along dry river beds and rocks.

Coober Pedy

After hundreds of kilometres of flat, wind swept gibber plains with salt bush and very few trees, up pops Coober Pedy, a blip in the road. Pinky white, giant ant hills start showing up a few kilometres out, then you turn off the highway to a small dusty town of jumbled dwellings dug into the brown dirt hills. So much dirt and dust yet perfect kerbs along the main street.
This town has seen better days, quite a few places are shut down and boarded up. It also seems that once something is old and stops working it's just left to rot wherever it is. Why would you move it? Where would you move it?
Apparently, there had been some iron ore mining in the area, however, with the price so low at the moment all small scale operations have shut down.

We got a map and some advice from the information centre and did our own drive around tour. We went into an underground museum /hotel/opal shop and then headed to the public 'noodling' fields. Heaps of dirt and rock dug up by an excavator, just out of town for anyone to look for opals. There wasn't even any potch in the heaps, however, someone had dumped a ute full of rocks out of a tumbler in the car park and we found heaps of good pieces of opal. The kids sat there for a good hour, enjoying themselves and Lloyd enjoyed digging holes with a spade.
Later in the afternoon we visited the Catacomb church, dug in the shape of a cross in the side of a hill. The minister was very excited to see us and insisted on taking some interesting photos of us under the air shafts.
Last thing for the day we visited Faye's underground house. A home dug by 3 women in the 1970. Very 'old lady' and a little bit creepy. She even had an indoor pool. Worth a look for the freak factor.
Coober Pedy, a very special place.

Broken Hill - 27 June - and beyond - 29 June

Monday
We spent a day in Broken Hill. A few hours were spent climbing old mining machinery in various parks. A visit to the Royal Flying Doctors. A drive up the old slag heap for a view of the town and then a visit to the Lifeline shop.

Tuesday
Back on the road, into SA. Lots of driving today. Lots of tiny towns. Found a good rail crane to climb at lunch stop. Not much else to see, although a train did go by!
A beautiful bare mountain range coming into Port Augusta and the temp reached 17 degrees at the Spencer Gulf!
Pushed on past Pt Augusta and found a free camp for the night, amongst the mallee and red dirt.

Wednesday
Lots more driving, not much to see. So flat, so much nothing, so much sky. Salt bush and cold wind swept plains.
Stopped to look at Lake Hart, salt lake with water! So cold in the wind we were back in the car pretty fast.
Great home made pies for lunch at roadhouse in Glendambo although water undrinkable.

Western NSW - 26 June

Brrrrrrr. That was a cold one. We awoke to a thick frost, a pink sun rise and a herd of cows. Everyone slept alright, except for a few complaints of cold feet.
Ponto Falls sounds like it has potential but in reality it's a stretch of brown river. It would be a pleasant spot to camp beside the river in the summer, but it's not summer.
After a quick breakfast of porridge and tea we packed up and were back on the road. We were going to have to do some serious driving today to make it to Broken Hill.
It's surprisingly wet and green in central NSW at the moment. The east coast low that hammered the coast a couple of weeks ago seemed to come further inland than I thought. There are still large pools of water beside the road just east of Cobar and the Bogan River in Nyngan was extremely high.
So far we've seen all kinds of birds including Major Mitchell's, Ringneck parrots and several flocks of emus.
After a long drive to Wilcannia we had to push on as we really wanted to make it to Broken Hill another 200 km west. Between Wilcannia and Broken Hill we had a bit of rain but we kept driving west towards the patch of clear sky on the horizon. By the time we made it to Broken Hill the rain had stopped and it was just on dusk. We found the budget caravan park on the outskirts of town and set up camp.

Alice Calling - 25 June

It's hard to believe that it's been two years since we got home from our around Australia trip. Nothing big has happened, just life but for a while there we didn't have a Prado to pull the camper trailer so there haven't been many adventures.
But now we have a new (old) Prado we can get back on the road (Evan's work leave permitting) and we're headed for the Red Centre.
This time round we've also gained another child. No, no big news, Beth is one of my 14 year old Scouts. So I've gained a daughter for 2 weeks! Yay! I'll let you know how that works out.
We're meeting a group of Scouts to hike part of the Larapinta Trail, east of Alice Springs. Most are flying in, but we're driving and will then be able to see a bit more after the hike.

The NT in winter, the perfect place to be, well maybe if you're headed north of Katherine. Alice Springs, however, is probably not going to be that warm. The nights may drop below zero, but hopefully the days should be beautiful.
Leaving Sydney yesterday was probably one of the coldest days of the year. Katoomba had had a snow fall the night before and it was still on the ground at 2pm. Six yr old Lloyd was ecstatic to see snow for the first time, and I was equally ecstatic to have ticked that one off the list without having to drive to Jindabyne in winter. We had a quick stop in Blackheath to throw some snow around and Beth realised that all the nagging about bringing thermals was for a reason.
It turned out that even more snow had fallen between Lithgow and Bathurst. We had to stop for another play beside the highway, amongst the snow laden gums and furs. It was surreal. And yes, we built a snowman.
We'd had a late start and were not going to make it to Nyngan for the night, so we found a free camp on Wikicamps called Ponto Falls, just south of Dubbo. We set up camp beside the river with a couple of other campers after dark. At 7pm it was already 4 degrees. We were in for a cold night.