July 6th

It is 4 weeks today since we left Milawa.We have travelled through some wonderful country and over some very rocky roads--including the track into Ruby Gap/Hale River.It took 2 and 3/4 hours to travel the 46 kms back to Arltunga this morning.

Our luncheon stop at 12.30pm, was very welcome. We then walked into the Joker Gorge and the old Joker Mine Site. A spectacular narrow and  rocky creek bed for water to flow through. For the first time I have seen the honey comb made be wild bees...needless to say I kept well away as bees were visiting regularly. 

I am constantly collecting for my Eco dyeing projects. Today I have a lumpy bag of Corkwood/Hakea nuts and a collection of seed pods from both the Grey Cassia and the Oval Leaved Cassia. I have had success already with the seed pods from the Grey Cassia so they are worth collecting.

Honeycomb in Joker Gorge

The evening is cool but we have a campfire burning in the Creek bed of Gillen Creek a little way south of Gem Tree.

July 5th

I have had a great day here in this beautiful Hale River Valley. The area is known as Ruby Gap which is further up stream.The weather is still very cool but the sun is quite warm.

 I did some more eco dyeing. Some of this is successful and other results are poor but it is fun to experiment with the trees and bushes that we can identify.

This afternoon I walked a short way, up the river, across the sand and rocks and did two drawings. The colours in the cliffs are brilliant and my drawings seem unrealistic. In fact the rock colours change throughout the day. The rocks vary in colour from pale fawn to rich pink/purple and grey/black.

It is surprising to see that some sections of the sand appear red/purple in colour and when I looked closely it is made up of tiny grains of garnets.

It has been a day for bread making and washing. We will set off tomorrow morning over this very rough road and gradually head north

View from our campsite

The Hale River bed

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July 4th

What a beautiful spot to spend some time! Everyone has been looking for garnets in the sand and with quite a lot of success. The boys have a collection of small examples. In places the sand looks purple/red with the tiny tiny grains of garnets that sparkle in the sun.


 There is water in the Hale River here so a perfect to stay a few nights.

The towering red cliffs and the beautiful River Red Gums along the river bed are a dominant feature of the gorge. It is very obvious that there has been a flood along the river. Debris has been left high in the trees and many small Red Gums have been pushed over. As a result of the flood there are  hundreds of tiny Red Gums which have recently germinated in the sandy creek bed.

Jack and Adam looking for Garnets

It is so restful here we have decided to stay two more nights.

July 3rd

Very late sunrise as we were tucked under a high rocky range. Today, we found that many areas of the rugged landscape have been burnt.

Our first stop was a visit to the Arltunga Historic Gold Mining Township. We have found some new trees and flowers including Red Bud Mallee Eucalypt and the intricate blooms of both the Corkwood Hakea and the Fork Leaved Hakea.

The trip into Ruby Gap was long and rough. We drove along the dry Hale River bed with very high red rocky cliffs on either side. This was quite a sight to see.


We are camped amongst sand, rocks and garnets tonight! Two little boys were lucky enough to find  garnet pebbles soon after we arrived.

The nuts of the Red Bud Mallee

July 2nd

Cold morning at Trephina Gorge where we walked for about an hour-the rocks have an outstanding glow in the sunlight. We saw Holly Grevillea, blue Isotoma,  and a low growing wattle displaying large golden blooms. There were also two examples of Eucalypts--Blue leaved mallee and Ghost Gums.

We went on to N'Dhala Gorge for a late lunch. It is an interesting walk up this Gorge with so many examples of rock art called 'pickings' as the designs are engraved into the rocks. In this area there is a wattle of particular interest, called a Sickle Wattle. It has long curved leaves like a sickle


.Late afternoon we travelled back to the Binns Track and followed it until 4.00pm where we camped beside a small dry creek bed. Many parts of this country has been burnt in the last few years making fire wood very black to collect.

A view of Trephina Creek

July 1st

Our last morning in Alice Springs! We have enjoyed our stay immensely even though we were very busy preparing  Earthy for the next step of our trip.


Jack & Adam Brock arrived by air  to Alice Springs Airport. Everyone  lunched together..then it was Goodbye time to our Renkin friends and the 6 of us set off to explore the East McDonnell Ranges. 


We called to see Emma Gorge and Jessy Gorge, both of which had great examples of
Aboriginal Art. Next stop was Corroboree Rock where we followed a track that gave us a great view of the rock. The bush is healthy with the Red Mallee trees beginning to bloom.There was also excellent examples of Mistletoe which seem difficult to identify. Evidently mistletoe varies depending on the type of tree it is growing in as well as the type of soil the tree is growing in.

The blooms of the Red Mallee Tree 

Tonight we are camping in the dry bed of Benstead Creek with a wonderful camp fire..in fact we toasted crumpets on it.

June 30th

A busy day in Alice Springs shopping for food, filling with fuel and generally having fun! We had a huge Kangaroo burger for lunch from the 'Red Dog Cafe'.

By the end of the day Earthy was packed full ready for the next 3-4 weeks..that's a large supply of food. An apple per day for 2 people is a lot of wrapping.

We all went to the 'Juicy Rump' restaurant at the Casino.

The Renkin family are perfect hosts who are ready to help at every turn.

This will be the last opportunity to post a blog for many days...so keep watch.

Abby, Gary, Darcy & Deb Renkin