ALICE SPRINGS / EAST MACDONNEL RANGES

Woke during the wee hours of the morning with my legs on fire from the bites. I got up and slathered on the Stop Itch which gave some relief and had just started dozing off again when I was woken by the lightning, thunder and rain. That eventually died down and I dozed off again and woke about 6.30am.


These bites on my leg are very, very itchy so we went in and bought some calamine lotion this morning. I put that on all the bites while we were still in the carpark – what a relief!

We saw something this morning we didn’t expect to see –the Todd River was flowing! So much so we could only get to our caravan park the long way around. The causeway we would normally cross was under water.

We headed out to the East Macdonnell Ranges with the plan to drive to N’dhala Gorge (90km), have a look around there then stop at a few places on the way back, mainly Corroboree Rock, Jessie Gap and Emily Gap. We headed along the Ross Highway and ended up stopping at Corroboree Rock for lunch. We explored a bit then continued on. The N’dhala Gorge is only 11km from the Ross Highway but it is 4x4 only. Because of the rains there were quite a few water crossings and the track was pretty rough in some parts. This was Royce’s first attempt at 4 wheel driving and he did really well. There was a stretch of the road we nicknamed Budgie Alley because there were so many of them flying around. We finally arrived at N’dhala Gorge and set ourselves up for the 1km return walk to look at the Aboriginal petroglyphs and paintings. We got about 200m along the path, found one lot of petroglyphs and were then cut off by water so we had to turn around and head back. A bit disappointing but the drive and the scenery was great so it was worthwhile anyway.

On the way back we spotted a small herd of brumbies. There were 3 foals and a couple of the mares appeared to be heavily pregnant. We took some photos from the car but when we got out to see if we could get some better shots they took off like lightning!

I waded across two water crossings so I could photograph and video Royce coming across in the car. The water in the first one was a bit cold but it was amazing how much better my legs felt afterwards. That water seemed to really soothe the bites (at least for a short while)!

We turned onto the Ross Highway and about 800m up the road we came across a small brown mare on the side of the road. She was wearing a rope halter and was hobbled. She was a bit skittish but Raymond got hold of the halter rope and he and Hazel stayed with the horse while Royce and I drove back to see if we could find someone who may be able to do something about her. We drove back the way we had come (2 water crossings) and looked for someone in the campgrounds but whilst there seemed to be quite a few campers we couldn’t find anyone of ‘authority’. We turned back and when we got to the Ross Highway we went on to the Ross River Resort. We found two people just pulling out in their vehicle and when we told them about the horse they said they had been looking for it for about a week and were just heading out again to have another look! We all drove back to where Raymond, Hazel and the horse were waiting. The hobbles were removed and we were thanked and we took off again.

On the way home there were some small water crossings and Royce took great pleasure in splashing through them (in the hope of removing some of the mud caked on the car from the Ndhala Gorge Road). We encountered quite a few cows on the edge of the road in a number of different places, we saw a flock of red tailed black cockatoos (tried to get some photos but not much success), and we spotted a small eagle (or large hawk or similar) grab something off the road and fly off with it.

All in all a really lovely day but we didn’t get to Jessie Gap or Emily Gap. We may have to do that another day.

The Todd River flowing across the causeway to our caravan park

Corroboree Rock

On the way to Ndhala Gorge

On the Ross Highway

Some of the brumbies. We counted 9 in all.  the middle one is a foal with mum on the right

One of Royce's water crossings

The little mare we found on the side of the road

One of the red tail black cockatoos.  if you look closely you can see a little bit of the red underside of its tail

ALICE SPRINGS

We arrived in AS on Tuesday afternoon and set up camp then did some shopping.  We spent a fairly quiet day yesterday although Royce did fix up the mirror that had come down.  There are a couple of ring necked parrots hanging around the caravans - one caravan in particular (probably because they feed them most nights).  They also attract a large number of top knot pigeons and galahs.
We woke to light rain early this morning and the rain gradually increased in intensity for some of the morning, eased up a bit and then we had rain off and on for the rest of the day.
When the rain first started this morning we noticed several of the pigeons deciding to take a bath.  They lay down on the road, rolled to the side and lifted their wings!  It was quite comical but if you didn't know better and just stumbled across them you would have thought they were all dead!
We had heard a forecast of strong winds and heavy rain in AS today so we put up our annexe this morning - just to be on the safe side!  As it turned out there was not much wind, spasmodic rain but very high humidity.
We indulged in a bakery lunch then headed to the Reptile Centre where we all got to hold a snake and a couple of the lizards.  A juvenile Spencer Goanna has the run of one of the rooms in the Centre and you can pat him.  There is a large display of snakes and lizards and also a salt water crocodile, a frog and freshwater turtles.  We then went to the Pioneer Women Hall of Fame and that was very interesting.  There were some very tough women in the early days of the outback settlements!  I am very glad I didn't have to be one of them - what a hard life they led.
We came home and Royce and Raymond had a cat nap then put up Raymond's annexe while Hazel and I visited KMart and did some shopping.
We went to Heavitree Gap Tavern for tea (it was lamb shank night so that was all you could get) then came home, pigged out on scones, jam and cream, had a cuppa then cleaned up and now doing the Blog.
We may head off to do some exploring of the East Macdonnell Ranges tomorrow - depending on weather.
Something (mosquito? ant?) bit me lots of times on the legs last night and they have come up in large red welts that are so itchy they were driving me crazy this morning, so I had to buy Stop Itch and I have been piling that on all day today.  I will be so glad when they go away!

 

 

 

PHOTOGRAPHS

Part of the Breakaways at Coober Pedy

This is the night sky about 10 to 15 minutes after the sun had set!

See the earlier photo and compare the colours.  This is taken on sunset while the earlier one was during the day

The very cute little lizard at the Marla South Camp

Our campsite at the Marla South Camp

The rhino on a stick!!!

Raymond and Hazel feeding the curious and hungry emu at Curtin Springs.  We started calling it "E Mu" so Raymond gave it the name Edward

Mount Connor

Both of us with Ayers Rock in the background. Taken at the Vehicle Sunset Viewing area

Ayers Rock / Uluru shortly before sunset

Unfortunately the quality isn't the best as it was taken on my iPhone but this is part of the way into the gorge at The Olgas.  The trees you can see are full size trees so this will give an idea of the height of the walls of the gorge

The Olgas taken from the roadside on our way there

On our approach to The Olgas

This is the view of about the first third of the first leg of the Kings Canyon Rim Walk

This is taken from the bottom of the first leg of the walk - the tiny figures in the picture are Royce and Hazel and they are about 1/3rd the way up

Royce part way up the killer first leg!

Taken from about half way up - almost there!

This and the photos to follow are just some of the spectacular scenery we saw at Kings Canyon while doing the Rim Walk.

Can you see the frog?

The colours are amazing and it is incredible how resilient and strong some of the plants are!

Mereenie Sandstone cliffs that look like they have been cut off with a very sharp knife

On the home leg!

The 2 very cute baby camels recently captured - at the Kings Creek Station

Finke River

Budgies in the tree at Finke River

A cockatiel in the same tree

Sunrise at Finke River

7/9/10 ALICE SPRINGS

Royce and I woke very early this morning (before sun up) and discovered that because we had left the fridge running on 12 volt our caravan batteries had run right down. Luckily we had enough gas left to heat the water to make a cup of tea. We sat outside with our cups of tea and watched the sun come up. Our young German backpackers woke once the sun was up so we made them a cup of tea and chatted for a bit longer. We found out they are really living on starvation rations. They don’t have a fridge so cannot travel with anything that needs refrigeration. They did have an esky but didn’t use it because it ‘kept spilling water out from the lid’ (we suspect they had way too much ice in it). They had a portable gas burner but said it wouldn’t boil a kettle. They were very happy to have a hot cup of tea. Hazel then made up a goodie basket for them with tins of tuna, packets of biscuits, tins of soft drinks etc. The look on their faces when they were given the package was priceless. They said the meal they had the previous night was the best they had eaten since coming to Australia and they said that receiving the package this morning was “like my birthday”.


They were a really lovely couple and we wished them well when they headed off to Kings Canyon.

We had brekkie, packed up and headed off to Alice Springs arriving shortly before lunch. We decided to book into the G’Day Mate Caravan Park (where they actually park your caravan for you!) for 2 nights. It is a nice caravan park with lots of trees, birds and friendly people. Once we set up we headed into Alice Springs (the Caravan Park is approximately 3 to 4 km from the town centre), had a bit of lunch, did some shopping at Target, found a camera shop and bought a battery charger for my camera, and did some grocery shopping at Woolworths (all in all a fairly expensive afternoon!).

We all decided this afternoon that we would stay in the caravan park for a week and will do day trips out to the West and East Macdonnell Ranges and do some tourist stuff in Alice Springs itself.

This should now bring my Blog entries up to date other than photographs and I hope to get photos on in the next day or two.

Just a side note - something I just remembered.  On the way to Finke River from Kings Canyon the large mirror on the wall above our bed fell off!  Luckily the two bedlights stopped it falling down fully and smashing on our bed (and the TV which was on the bed!).  A job for Royce now to put the mirror back up.