2006/06 Australia trip - Ormiston Gorge |
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Tuesday June 13th
We picked up our permit for the Mereenie Road. The rules weren’t much different from those for crossing any private land: no trips on side roads and no camping. After the first ten miles or so of blacktop, it was 150 miles of gravel and sand washboard, 
so lots of vibration still but little danger of getting stuck in the sand. This time, either the Troopie dealt much better
with the bumps than a campervan, or we’ve become less sensitive! Either way, we made reasonable time. It was easier driving than the Ernest Giles Road, as it didn’t have those long stretches of deep sand.
The road has few signs but we thought that the two on this page were cute. The first, “Lift Um Foot”, signals the beginning of a series of bends. At the exit, we were told to “Put Um Back Down”.
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Mereenie Road (5.55) |
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We were allowed to stop at Gosse’s Bluff. From a distance this looks like a rocky range of hills, but inside the hills there’s a large crater. Current thinking is that the hills and crater were caused by a comet colliding with the Earth, about 140 million years ago. The impact created the crater and threw up the walls around it. Millions of years of erosion has softened the edges but it’s still a very different kind of place.
In case you are thinking that Australia is a dangerous place with all these rocks crashing into the ground, it’s really no worse than the rest of the world. The main difference in Australia is that there’s been little rain and erosion for millions of years. In most places in the world where there is sufficient rain, craters like this get washed away and filled in very quickly in the geological timescale. It’s only in desert areas, like Australia and America’s Southwest, that they can still be seen.
Further on we met a couple of donkeys, and then some red-tailed cockatoos. The cockatoos look to be jet black when they are resting, but their tails flash scarlet when they fly.
We took the fork towards Glen Helen, as far as we had ventured from Alice Springs on our ’95 trip, and drove to the Ormiston Gorge campground, inside West McDonnell national park. All the tourism brochures rave about Uluru and Kata Tjuta, but the 300 mile drive via the Lasseter Highway to go see them is not very interesting. In contrast, this road through the West McDonnells is just gorgeous: red rocks, yellow and green plants, and a blazing blue sky
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Red Canyon (1.59) |
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We camped just before sunset and I took a walk down into the gorge to see what was about. There are steep red cliffs, ancient gnarled gum trees, and a pool of cold water. We’d been there before but during the 
heat of the day, with dozens of other people around. This time, I was the only person in the gorge, and it was cool and almost dark. A breeze came up and spoilt the cliff’s reflection in the water and I sat down to wait for the breeze to drop. A heron flew in and perched on the edge of the water. A couple of peewees perched on a nearby branch. A miner bird came in to see if I had any food. Then I heard a soft thud behind me, and the head of a rock wallaby peered over the top of a rock, checking me out. Within minutes I could see a half dozen wallabies working the cliff face in front of me. I took lots of pictures until the light died completely and I had to blunder my way back to camp.
Wednesday June 14th
To our surprise the campground had showers. Of course, these were standard Australian design, with lots of open space for the wind to whistle though. This is probably good design for the summer as it allows the moisture to escape, but it can be a bit parky in the winter, even if the water’s hot, which it wasn’t!
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Ormiston Gorge (2.13) |
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We spent a little while at Ormiston Gorge and had the place to ourselves and the birds. It is a really beautiful spot with towering red cliffs, gnarled trees with patterned bark, and water pools for reflection. The birds were out in force, including this willie wagtail, but the wallabies had finished their feeding and were fast asleep somewhere. The gorge would be a lot busier later in the day as the buses and cars starting out from Alice Springs would end up there after visiting Standley Chasm, Ellery Big Hole, the Ochre Pits, and all the other attractions of Larapinta Drive.