July 30^th 2017

Reflections in Ellery Creek Big Hole

We have had a lovely day exploring two more Gorges along the West MacDonnell Ranges. Firstly we visited Ellery Creek Big Hole which is a most popular place with both a Camping Area and Day Visitor facilities. From here we walked the Dolomite Track which is 3 km in length. It follows the Larapinta Trail for 1 kilometre and then loops around the hills and returns to the Camping area. It was rocky rough but with my faithful stick I managed the distance quite well. The close view of the country, the rocks and plants was part of the pleasure.

Last year, at about this time, Cynthia and David  walked the 240 km long Larapinta Trail. It took them about 12 days from memory. When I see the West MacDonnell Ranges in reality it makes me realise what a mammoth effort it was..beginning  in Alice Springs and finishing at Redbank Gorge and climbing Mt Sonder which is a stately mountain overlooking the whole range. It is not the highest mountain in the Northern Territory as this honour goes to nearby Mt Zeil.

Early afternoon we walked the 1.1 km, from the Carpark, to see Serpentine Gorge. I found the walk a little arduous as the day was quite hot. Unexpectantly , we found the Gorge to be quite Spiritual. There were over a dozen people there and everyone was totally quiet. So quiet that we felt we were waiting for the music to begin. We both found the experience to be totally remarkable.

Mini Richie Bark

Now where to Camp? We drove up to the Henderson Lookout to see the view..the sign said ‘Twenty-four hour camping allowed’…So here we are up on high for the night with a magnificent view of the West MacDonnell Ranges. There is a ‘Hot Spot’ up here so we can gain telephone connection so we were able to ring Cynthia. With the help of the Dongle I am able to 'Post' a couple of blogs..but no photos.

These Ranges are very different with so many rocks visible along the top and side of the hills. In places there is little or no soil and only a few trees and spinifex in view. John has coined the phrase ‘the bones of the earth’ are visible! It is an apt expression. I can see a long snake or dinosaur making its way along the tops of the mountains. 

 July 29th 2017.

We have had a varied day with some travelling, saying Good bye to ‘Alice Springs’, driving west to refresh our memories about the West MacDonnell Ranges and enjoying the warm weather. These Ranges are striking all over again with rugged red/brown rocks showing layer upon layer of sheer drops of rock and earth with a small amount of grasses which could be spinifex mixed with some small eucalypt ghost gums. Along the wide dry river beds there are River Red gums which are similar to those we have at home but are slightly different.. a different sub-species. They are delightful trees with white/grey/ brown trunks and wide spreading limbs.

Firstly  we drove into Simpsons Gap which has a wide dry river bed but with quite a large pool of water in the Gap. The cliffs are rough, sheer, rocky and a deep red/brown colour. We made the short walk along the sandy river bed to the Gap to the large pool water.

Onward to Stanley Chasm. This Tourist spot has become quite commercialized. We could not find a park unless we walked for a kilometre. Many years ago we went into the Chasm itself to see the sun shine directly down for a few minutes around midday. We did not wait for this but saved the image in our memories. Interestingly, late last century, I purchased a beautiful dress and shawl, which had been hand dyed and made by Trudy Billingsley. The colour of the dress had been inspired by Stanley Chasm so, as you can imagine, it is a delightful brick orange colour similar to the rocks of the West MacDonnell Ranges. I really love this brick red orange colour.

Water in Simpsons Gap

From here we branched onto Namatjira Drive, guided by the map about the West MacDonnell National Park and assisted by Wiki Camps we left the main road, and followed the sign post to Hugh Gorge. We had not heard of this Gorge before. The road was very rough so we found a lovely flat camp on the banks of the Hugh River which of course was dry. After setting up camp, we ate our lunch then set off, without the van, to find Hugh Gorge and Birthday Waterhole. The road/track was wild, rocky and rough so eventually we turned back and slowly came back to our camp and enjoyed a relaxing few hours under the shade of a large Red Gum tree. There are no birds or animals here…presumably because there is no nearby water. The area is very dry and flowers are yet to bloom.

July 27th  & 28th  2017... Alice Springs 

This morning was certainly cooler..a warning of southern temperatures I am sure.

We had quite a long chat with Bronwen and Graham before we finally left about 9.30. The W.W.2 Staging Camp provided a great place for free camping. It is open and uncrowded with is space for many camping rigs.

The Stuart Highway provides easy driving, with some very pretty views of the undulating country, especially the mountain ranges. There were several magnificent Mesa Hills. The rocky tops were stark and sheer and I imagine nearly impossible to climb. There were many rest stops along the way, the most interesting one was the Crossing of The Tropic of Capricorn. We also passed the turn off onto the Tanami Road where we have travelled several times in earlier years.

I noticed that there were many roadside trees which were infested with Mistletoe Maidenii. It is different from other mistletoes in that it has glaucous grey/green leaves and the flowers are the same colour as the leaves.

We saw Graham & Bronwen several times along the road--- eating lunch and stopped at a roadside service station...all quite unplanned! 

We arrived in Alice Springs mid afternoon and have camped in the Big 4 Park. It is a clean and well cared for park. We went to a nearby Tavern for dinner. 

Driving Through Heavitree Gap in Alice Springs

The second day in 'Alice' was busy firstly with laundry chores and Super Market shopping to stock up on supplies for the next week. We did enjoyed lunch with Gary Renkin at the nearby 'Star of Alice Cafe'. Gary kindly spent some time with John checking out his 'mal-functioning CB radio'...unfortunately without much success.

I had arranged to meet Bronwen for a couple of hours wandering through shops in the Alice Springs Mall. We enjoyed all the Art Galleries especially. Eventually we found a Patchwork & Quilting Shop which appeared to stock only 'Aboriginal Designed' fabrics. They were lovely bright fabrics typical of the designs used in the local paintings. I was pleased to purchase an unusual brick-red piece.....cushion covers maybe??

Friday night we went to 'Barra on Todd' which is a really great restaurant with a large range of meals. John & I both chose a lamb meal...the last lamb chops were purchased in Winton and were less than satisfactory. Bronwen and Graham joined us so we enjoyed a fun night with good company, good food and good wine.

 July 26th 2017

We left the lovely camp on Whistle Duck Creek at around 9.00 am. It was quite a good trip out through the bush and lots of dry creek beds, some  of which show a flood depth of 2 metres..this is surprising but debris is visible high in the tree branches, so it must be a realistic measurement.

I was lucky to see a Mistletoe Maidenii as we drove by. The leaves are quite grey/green glaucous in colour and so are the flowers. Another plant I saw on passing was the Cockroach bush which belongs to the Cassia family.

We were lucky to be able to follow the grader as he worked on the very roughest part of the road. We passed him and were travelling slowly along the section of road which was set aside for traffic when a vehicle and van raced passed us on the wrong side of the road and amid the dust. Surprise surprise!!

Back on the Stuart Highway again we soon came to the Devils Marbles. What an amazing arrangement of huge rounded rocks. Further south we stopped in at Wauchope with the plan to buy fuel and found it to be $1.79 per litre so we only put a small amount in the truck…we will wait for a cheaper option!

We camped the night on the old World War 2 Army Staging Camp. It is a deserted wide flat space with some concrete pads which are most suitable to park a van on. We had been there an hour or so when who should appear, walking toward our van but my good friend Bronwen Menner. She and her husband Graham were camped in the area as well. We spent some time chatting with them and will catch up again in Alice Springs where we should arrive tomorrow some time.There are about 15 or 20 rigs camped on this free site. We had a view of Taylors Creek which is a wide dry and sandy creek bed.

July 24^th & 25^th  2017  Davenport National Park

 The ‘desert wind’ following us all day from The Pebbles/ Kunjarra  onto the Stuart Highway and continued most of the day. The highway is a wide bitumen road with distant inland mountains making the scenery very attractive.

After visiting Tennant Creek, which is really much larger than I had remembered, we turned east onto the Kunara / Epenarra Road which was gravel and has brought us here to The Davenport National Park. The road was rather rough in patches but the variety of plants and trees provided a great deal of interest. In fact I had to request several  ‘photo stops’. I could not identify all the trees ..wattles, eucalypts, hakea, grevillea, cassia and melaleuca with many in flower. The drive through the beautiful red-rock hills toward the Davenport Park was quite a slow journey but eventually we camped at a waterhole on Whistle Duck Creek. It was a pretty spot and the water  proved to be clear and clean..maybe some washing. We have paid to stay for 2 nights.

During the early morning we heard dingoes howling and both nights a donkey neighing ‘Hee Haw’

The second day has been fine and warm. We went off for a short walk along the Injaidan Waterhole. The water looked deep and was flanked by a magnificent sheer rock face wall. The trees show a collection of debris collected during the last flood. There is a huge variety of trees..several gums and several wattles one of which is the low growing Curry Wattle that smells distinctly of curry when you rub the leaves in your fingers.

Back at the camp we have spent quite awhile watching and trying to identify the birds which include a Rainbow Bee-eater, Zebra Finches, Corellas, a Straw Necked Heron, a Black Cormorant, Lincoln Ring Neck Parrots, several Butcherbirds, Pigeons and several very tiny honeyeaters.

Our day has been restful and definitely what was needed after the drive in on the hilly gravel road…tomorrow we will attack it again..perhaps an early start. I am about 30 minutes ahead all the time because of the time difference in NT!

Late morning on Monday, David & Cynthia were to leave Alice Springs. David will have set out to drive his truck  home, carrying the 2 motor bikes and Cynthia will have flown to Melbourne to be collected and taken to Oxley by Helen & Neil Brock.

Sorry, no photos tonight as the 'server cannot be found'!

July 23rd 2017


The bitumen surface of the Barkly Highway allowed us to be on the Stuart Highway by lunch time...the first sign after we left the Roadhouse told us that the speed limit was 130...we are not accustomed to that in Victoria and we certainly cannot tow our caravan at that speed!!

The bush-land either side of the road was low with a few Bloodwood trees showing their high blooms. Grevilleas and acacias were also in bloom but we were unable to stop. The only one I could identify while travelling was the Holly Grevillea. We have been surprised over the weeks we have been travelling just how many burnt patches there are. I am unsure how these fires start. Often I think the bush benefits from being burnt with a low fire because some seeds need the heat to crack them open ready for the first rain

Red Bud Mallee Eucalypt in bloom

Again there were many quite large termite nests. Some had a point of difference because they had been dressed in discarded  clothing to make them look like people! One even had a 'roadworks' witch's hat on to give a look of distinction!

 Three Ways Roadhouse is 187 kms from the Barkly Roadhouse. There was phone connection at this busy place, so we sat for awhile in the shade and ate our lunch then made a couple of phone calls. While this was happening I noticed a Red Bud Mallee eucalypt in bloom...a very distinctive tree.

We have driven out to the Pebbles Tourist site

Grey Cassia with yellow blooms and green seedpods

this afternoon and set up camp for the evening. There is only a very short walk here so that is disappointing. However I did find a couple of attractive Cassia bushes in bloom. The weather is a comfortable temperature but very windy. Toward evening we have realised that many other people have had the idea to camp here with us..luckily we are in the corner of the small fenced area.

Good news today as I have been advised that my quilt, entered in Art Quilt Australia 2017 has been accepted. 50 quilts have been juried in, for display, out of 76 entries.

July 22nd 2017

View of Mitchell Grass on Barkly Tablelands...photo taken while travelling.

Today we completed the trip across the Barkly Tablelands driving over 300 km along a bitumen road of varying quality to reach Barkly Homestead Roadhouse about 2.00 pm . We crossed both the Barkly and Rankin Stock Routes along the way. The scenery varied from open bushlands to wide open plains of Mitchell Grass. Again the Silver Box tree was in evidence along with Bauhinia trees displaying large deep red seed pods. The cream grevillea which we have seen in the last few days were in bloom in a couple of spots and bloodwoods again but displaying large decaying flowers.

Bauhinia pods with our rig in the background

We were delighted to see 4 Bustards on the roadway so we could get a good view of them as they took flight. Wedge Tailed Eagles regularly feed on the roadside carrion. They always leave it until the last second to take flight away from the vehicle...they are large bold birds and amazing to watch with very wide wings.

We passed a team of operators doing seismic tests and laying out many kilometers of cable in readiness for the testing of minerals we presume.

We are staying in the camping ground attached to the Roadhouse. It appears to be a well organised establishment. It is situated on the Barkly Highway which is a very busy east-west route for travellers.