Alice Springs - Day 9, 20 May 2012

Flying home, like flying to Alice, makes you aware of how vast Australia is. Largely uninhabitable but, oh!, what a fabulously beautiful place it is.



Small section of Lake Eyre!

Living in the “leafy eastern suburbs” I don't come face to face with the aboriginal “problem”. On this trip I did. To see indigenous people wandering around aimlessly, some of them drunk, made me think we're going to need to keep saying Sorry for many years to come.

One human intervention that was really impressive - use of solar power. Many houses have panels on their roofs and there are at least two fields of panels supplying one third of the power needs of Alice Springs. More of us should copy this initiative.

Back when I was at school, the geography class went on the “Central Australia Trip”. I've finally been lucky enough to catch up with them.

Sturt's Desert Rose
Floral Emblem of the Northern Territory



Alice Springs - Day 8, 19 May 2012

It's all very pleasant travelling along Larapinta Drive, taking in the West Macdonnell Ranges once again. Then there's a turn off and very quickly the road turns to gravel. And very quickly after that, the road is the mostly dry river bed, pure and simple.

It's the start of Palm Valley, or more properly Finke Gorge National Park. I've never been on a four wheel drive surface before – it shakes the bones a bit! Driving through water, albeit pretty shallow, was an entirely new experience.

First stop is Cycad Gorge. The cycads and palms are relics of long ago times when this area was tropical rather than desert, anomalies that place us as pin pricks on the earth's time-line. After morning tea it was delightful walking about in this environment.

Then a short but slow and very bumpy drive later, we were at Palm Valley itself. Here I joined those doing the rim walk. A bit of a climb up but nothing like Heart Attack Hill at King's Canyon. Although heights are not my thing, it was a bonus to see the valley from above as well as from the floor. Stunningly beautiful – again!

 

When it came time to leave for Hermannsburg there was a stop at Kalarranga Lookout, another relatively easy short climb rewarded by extensive views of the valley and well beyond. Mostly when people think of desert they think of absence of life but nothing could be further from the truth. There's so much flora and fauna that has adapted to life in this arid area, briefly lush and reviving due to good rains over the past couple of years.

Back in the bus and not long after, there's Hermannsburg.

I was really interested to see this place. It is another name from my childhood, no doubt because of its links with Albert Namatjira. First stop was the homestead for lunch and a look at the museum housed there. It was fascinating to see this bit of history but I really wondered all the while, “Why did missionaries come here?” They couldn't have believed that God is impressed by numbers. Even the scale of the buildings is testimony to small expectations.

Boys' Dorm

Mosaic hearth, Maids' Quarters

The new church is several times larger than the old one but I can't think that the numbers would be any bigger. The church is obviously used. Are many people off-put by the notice at the doorway “This building contains asbestos”? Surprisingly, some of the old buildings are still occupied. They're still tough in that part of the world!

The mortuary was a grim reminder of similar slabs I saw at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp at Oranienburg, outside Berlin. Not used for the same grim purpose but grim nonetheless.

Mortuary

The mission might have started and operated with the best of intentions but it's a depressing place these days, looking godforsaken rather than blessed. It was an away day for the local football team so there were very few people about which no doubt added to the feeling of desolation.

It was a strange day, great natural beauty, depressing human presence so I returned to the hotel subdued but pleased that I'd had the experience.

And ready to go home the next morning. 

Alice Springs - Day 7, 18 May 2012

After all that physical getting about, an easy day. First up, collect a hire car again. Next, do a bit of shopping – only three pairs of earrings! A small dot painting. A tea towel - oh no! oh yes!! - I was a sucker for the Sturt Desert Pea pattern. Some early Christmas presents. And ... yes, the obligatory t-shirt for my granddaughter.

Lapis lazuli, Onyx, Silver & Sturt Desert Peas

My contribution to local trade having been made, I headed off to do a bit of networking. First to the hospital library, then, with Chris, on to the Arid Zone Research Institute to meet (another!) Margaret. With her boss and the librarian from the mining section we went to lunch 'next door' at the Black Cockatoo Café in the Desert Knowledge Precinct. We had a lovely lunch with lots of shop talk: our common problems, what's different about what we do (largely to do with our different clientèle), what's the same. I always try to visit libraries when I travel because I enjoy seeing how other places are set up and how they work. This visit, to three libraries no less, was no exception. Thank you Chris, Margaret, Bid and Alison. 

                                         

Those very pleasant few hours had to end .... some people had work to do! I went to RFDS again, and again left without seeing their museum and display. Barely completed renovations made it a place to visit quite a bit later. I succeeded in making a small purchase, needing patience many wouldn't believe I possess, while staff battled the brand new cash registers. I'm hoping it will be third time lucky when I'm briefly in Alice Springs again later in the year.

Coffee for me, seeds & scraps for Port Lincoln parrots

Time for coffee just before closing time at the last open café in Todd Mall. I was spotted by one of the 3-day tour tourists which was fortuitous for us both. I had company for my visit to ANZAC Hill and Angela (from Germany) got to a local site she would otherwise only have seen from a distance. 

Alice from ANZAC HILL, left of the Gap

Alice from ANZAC Hill, right of the Gap

By now it was almost sunset: we looked down on Alice while watching the beautiful changing colours of the sky and the hills surrounding the town. I dropped Angela back at her accommodation then made a quick return to the Hill to see Alice by night, lights twinkling. It was at this point that I met the charming French backpackers plugged into the local electricity supply.

ANZAC Hill

Alice at sunset

 Did I forget something? My mind was such a total blank I couldn't even be annoyed with myself. This was the night for which I'd bought a ticket to the night tour at the Desert Park. What a duffer!!

Alice Springs – Day 6, 17 May 2012

My second night in a swag wasn't quite as chilly as the first: going to sleep and waking up to a fire helped, as did wearing more clothes and snuggling further down into the sleeping bag. Once again, after the half hour drive from King's Creek Station, our group was first to arrive at the next tourist spot. This time King's Canyon, now known as Watarrka. I was the only one of our group who didn't go on the rim walk. I might have made it, in fact I was told Heart Attack Hill plus walk was no more difficult than the previous day, but with the cumulative effect of the previous two days' walks, it would have been hard enough work that it wouldn't have been enjoyable. 

Heart Attack Hill (lowest third), Watarrka

That didn't mean I missed out. I had the immense pleasure of doing the creek walk, only 1 km into the floor of the canyon, along the creek bed, although the only water was a small water hole which I had to scramble over rocks to reach. So it wasn't all an easy stroll!

Creek bed

Canyon wall

Flora

Head of canyon

Canyon wall with tree shadows

Waterhole

Canyon wall

Waterhole

Waterhole

Fauna

At the end of the walk is a small viewing platform with some seats. For a long time I had the place to myself. I read a little but mostly I simply breathed in the peace, listening to the wind in the trees, the birds, the silence. 

At one point cooee and hellos were yelled down to me from the canyon rim by the rest of the tour party. They missed a magical experience. 

Tour group peer over canyon rim

The following day I happened upon some French backpackers (siphoning off some electricity from a power point they'd found at ANZAC Hill!) who were heading down that way in a couple of days. Since they could set their own itinerary, I urged them to do both the rim and creek walks to get the most from their visit.

French backpackers 'liberating' some Australian electricity

After lunch at King's Creek Station it was the long drive back to Alice Springs. There were the obligatory rest stops, one (again, as on the way down) at Erldunda Resort. Most places are called 'resort' but instead of the luxury idyll the word conjures up, usually it covers the most basic place where you'd stop to sleep then move on quickly. The other stop was at a camel farm. Rides were available and a couple of people took the opportunity. Me, I don't see why any animal should have to carry me around just for the (my!) fun of it. We were dropped off at our accommodation then met up again for dinner at Annie's Place - best value meal in town is the legend.

It was a good group of 21, the guide/driver and I being the only Australians. A good number of Germans, three Koreans then a smattering of NZers, Poms, Yanks, Taiwanese. Three of us were Margaret. Oh dear, just like school.

My 'home' for three days

Alice Springs – Day 5, 16 May 2012

My swag by pre-dawn camp fire

Ooh, it got cold sleeping in the swag! The first night I was using a knitted jacket as a booster pillow but managed to put it on without getting out of the sleeping bag. The next night I wore the clothes that I was going to wear the next day and put thermals over the top. I wasn't going to have a shower that second night – hot water but freezing once you turned the taps off - but got covered in carbon when collecting wood for the camp fire – the wood came from burned trees. But then, it's been cold in bed at my hotel. The nights in this area are cold. All the same, it was fun looking up at all the stars and, the second night, with the flames leaping …. and getting smoked.

Uluru at sunrise

Kata Tjuta at dawn

I didn't freeze too long in the swag. It was up and at it at 5.15am both mornings. First to get to Kata Tjuta for sunrise. From the viewing area you could see both Uluru and what used to be called the Olgas. Then on to do the 'Valley of the Winds' walk. It was quite a bit shorter than walking around Uluru but degree of difficulty was way higher. So much so that I decided not to do the rim walk at King's Canyon. More great scenery, up and down rough hills and dales. I slipped sideways on gravel at one point and two or three of the young ones kept an eye on me thereafter! Afterwards I read that walk is rated 'difficult'. Might have guessed! Next, lunch and on to King's Creek Station for the second night.

Valley of the Winds map

Valley of the Winds

Kata Tjuta

Kata Tjuta

I was more useful collecting firewood en route than I was at kitchen duties. Also en route we stopped to look at a salt lake. Walking up the dune to see it we walked on the softest, finest red sand. Beautiful stuff.

Salt lake, red sand

Collecting firewood

It's been many years since I sat by a fire outdoors, back to bonfire night when I was a kid probably. In a 'small world' moment I discovered that one of the backpacker couples had stayed a street away from where I grew up and walked in the park where those childhood bonfires were held. Dinner was interesting. I've always said I wouldn't eat the national emblem or noxious weeds. That still holds true for prickly pear but I did taste kangaroo. Don't need to try it again. Camel either. That was on the lunch menu. On the other hand, the damper was great!

Damper

Warming my toes

And so to bed for my second night in a swag, 15,200 rather tough steps later.