IdefixOnTour

Well uh, if you have not seen it other than on pictures you might make the same mistake as we did.

Before we got there we spent time in the West MacDonnell National Park and King’s Canyon. Alice Springs lies at a gap between the East and West MacDonnell
Range. On the West side are a number of attractions we looked at (this is a tourist post..), the first one being Simpson Gap. Like ABC in Europe Australia has something similar, instead of Church, Castle or Cathedral it is Another Bloody Gorge or Gap.

This first location in the Park was just a gap in the Range with a waterhole. Even if it took in this very rainless environment millions of years for water to cut a gap or gorge we were not impressed. Already a lot nicer was Standley Chasm. The drawing of the walktrail
showed that after the first chasm a second one could be seen. We just walked on behind the people in front of us, climbing on the mountain over boulders in a dry creek bed, until the men turned and said that they (and we) must have taking a wrong turn! Yes, it is possible to do that in this environment. Although the Chasm is in the National Park, it is owned and managed by Aboriginals. The path to the first Chasm was good,
however it did not have the markings as we saw on other trails in the NP.
Anyway, again following the same men, we climbed up another mountain through another dry creek bed until we got stuck in the second chasm. This was as far as we could go.  A jump of more than 2 meters high was not on our programme today. People walk the Larapinta trail (about 130 kilometers) through the National Park and they have to take this obstacle. Coming from the other direction is a lot easier though as one can lower her/himself 2 meters down better than up.

The way National Parks and Aboriginal Owned Land works is not very clear in some cases. For this little walk we had to pay the local aboriginals a whopping AUD 18 per head whilst the rest of the National Park is free. Staying on the subject: camping costs AUD 3.30 per person and driving the Mereenie Loop AUD 2.20 . When you buy this Loop Pass you get a booklet with information on various sights in the area, but none are on the Loop!
The Pass must cost more than the 2.20 to produce, but is probably subsidised by one of the many Government Organisations dealing with Aboriginals.
We had the pleasure of driving this most horribly corrugated road for 154 kilometers in about three hours. It is of course forbidden to stop and leave this road. When the curtain still hung, the old road from West Germany to Berlin gave the tourist more freedom!

After the Standley Casm we camped at Ellery Creek Big Hole. The pattern is here the same. Mountain Range, dry Gorge and a semi-permanent waterhole at the
end of the gorge. So we went to look at the Serpentine Gorge and Ormiston Gorge and Glen Helen Gorge and Redbank Gorge as well of course. At the Serpentine Gorge we also walked up the lookout and enjoyed early in the morning the warmth of the sunshine with our fellow sunbather : The Rock Wallaby!

 A cousin of his could be seen at Ormiston Gorge. Here we had the most beautiful walk in the West MacDonnells: The Pound Walk. 8 Kilometers in a very varied country-side and ending walking through the Gorge and the Waterhole.

The best part of Glen Hole Gorge were the 2 nights we bushcamped on the bank of the dry riverbed opposite the gorge. Especially the first night
we were glad with our campfire as the evening was biterly cold.

Very impressive and a bit of a mystic place is Gosse Bluff. A large meteorite hit the earth and created a crater. The rim has weathered down over time but it is still very visible from afar on the flat plains surrounding it. The Abos have another theory about the creation of the crater: a (god)child fell from the sky and since then the evening and morning stars (father and mother) are looking for it every day. Most of the
park is closed to the public as the Abos have many sacred sites in the area.

Before taking the Mereenie Loop to King’s Canyon we went to Finke Gorge National Park. This is really worth your while, the two 8 kilometer walks in the Park are beautiful. The track from the campsite to Palm Valley is only four kilometers but seriously offroad. It took us almost 30 minutes one way without damaging Idefix. Susi and Ruedi (on tour) were working as volunteers in the Park. It is very nice to meet such travel-veterans with their healthy curiosity and enthousiasm. Hopefully we meet again and have some more time together.

After spending so many nights in basic bushcamps we were completely shocked in Watarrka National Park (King’s Canyon). Here the Aboriginals teamed up with a commercial operator. A crowded overpriced campsite with no alternative is the result. Spending even more money on wine and beer we went happily drunk to bed (two glassses each were sufficient after a long dry spell). The walk around and in the canyon is worth all this trouble though. The domes along the rim were even better than the ones in the Bungle Bungles we thought.

Next on the agenda is: The Rock! Another long day driving in this country of long distances. Toni is right of course: do not go here just for The Rock, it is not worth the effort.
After several hours driving we see a glimpe of it: see, see, there it is. An hour later at a Park Area: it does not look so nice as on the pictures, the side is not smooth at all. Yeah, but it is big isn’t it, we are still 200 kilometers away and it is already this large in the otherwise flat landscape. At Curtis Springs Roadhouse (free camping!), we met two elderly men who just went for the one day to Uluru. The same group of Abos and Commercial operator of King’s Canyon run this park as well. Here one must also pay an entrance fee of AUD 25 per person. The fee is for a 3-day pass registered on your name and car. As the passes of the two men did not have their names and car registration they offered their passes for AUD 10 each. We had already decided to spend one day at Uluru and one day at The Olgas so a deal was made. At the Entrance of the Park we were asked to fill in the missing info on the passes….
Uluru looked a lot better than the previous day and we spend a couple of hours walking around it. Although we would not have done it anyway, the walk up the Uluru was closed during the two days we were there because of too strong a wind. At the bottom the wind was not very strong but cold, we wore all day our fleece jackets. The camping was a lot better and worth it’s money if compared to King’s Canyon. After seeing the Olgas and spending a couple of hours on Internet and phone to locate our radiator-fan we left the Park heading for Alice Springs. When we saw The Rock getting larger again after a couple of hours driving it finally dawned on us: we looked at Mt. Connor before and took it for Ayer’s Rock! I hope we can recognise
the Opera in Sydney better

Martha Gellman - “The only aspect of our travels that is interesting to others is disaster.”