1995/11 Australia trip - McDonnell Range |
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Next morning, Monday, we headed out west, along the McDonnell range, stopping first at Standley Chasm, where a stream has cut through the rock, leaving a shady canyon which is over a hundred feet deep but only a few feet wide. This is another oasis in the desert, with a collection of unusual plants and animals, including rock wallabies. These are like small kangaroos, but they live up in the rocks, and have taken the role of baboons or monkeys, even in the way that they sit and move around on the rocks. When you see them from a distance, you think they are monkeys, but know they can’t be as Australia doesn’t have any.
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Standley Chasm (13.55) |
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The ranger ensures that there are always a few around the chasm by tossing them some food each day. The park is owned and run, very well,
by the aborigines. We had Devonshire teas for elevenses, but instead of being in a tea room, we were out on the verandah, surrounded by bougainvillea and red cliffs. It was a shame to leave, but there was more to see. We drove west and were really surprised at the glorious scenery. The road runs in a long valley between two lines of mountains, with red ridges of rock showing. The grass is yellow spinifex, and the trees are green desert oak, so it’s one long avenue of colour in the desert.
The scenery is a well-kept secret, as we mostly had the road to ourselves. There are no towns on the road at all, and there are no facilities for coping with bus-loads of people, so there’s just the occasional tourist car. We were headed for Ormiston Gorge. This is part of the Finke River, which is dry for most of the year, but has a large water hole in the gorge. Behind the water hole, there’s a jumble of rocks between the canyon walls. This takes some time to negotiate, but beyond it the canyon floor is all sand. It really seems strange to be walking between towering cliffs, ankle deep in sand. Clearly, not a good place to be when it rains!
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Ormiston Gorge (15.30) |
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We were running out of daylight, so we headed for Glen Helen, where there’s a tiny lodge and shop on the shore of another water hole on the same river. This is where we would have ended up on the Mereenie rock road if we’d made it. There was enough water here to stop us from hiking into the glen, so we wandered around the area that we could, and then set off back towards Alice Springs.
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Glen Helen (2.38) |
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By this time, the sky was black and there was a rainbow in the east, so it looked like the desert was going to get some rain. This promised to be 
interesting, but could be a problem too as the road ran across a number of river beds, and we didn’t want to be sitting waiting a few days for the water to go down!
Luckily, it didn’t amount to much, and we were able to make one more stop to look at the ochre pits where the aborigines get their painting materials, and then it was dark for the drive back.
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Ochre Beds (2.33) |
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We stopped at the bus station to enquire about luggage arrangements but it had just closed. Back at the campground it was a stormy night, with tents being restaked and stuff blown around. The rain helped us a bit by softening the dirt on the camper, so we were able to quickly clean it off and get it back to NQ.