Friday 31st August 2007: Our plan for the next two days was to go out into the West Mac Donnell Ranges and visit all of the Gorges and when night fall comes, set up our tents for the night and then continue the following day. With this in mind, we left our caravans at the Caravan and headed off at 7.45am. Being so early when we arrived at Simpson’s Gap, we had to contend with shadows for our photos so we decided to give Stanley Chasm a miss until on our way back tomorrow.
After visiting Ellery Creek Big Water Hole and Serpentine Gorge, it was lunch time by the time we arrived at Ormiston Gorge. After a quick feed from our onboard fridges, we had a look at the Gorge before continuing on to Glen Helen Gorge and finally Redbank Gorge where Bruce and Maree collected the first flat tyre for the trip. Leaving Bruce and Maree to change the tyre, the rest of us walked into Redbank Gorge.
It was 4.37pm by the time we returned to the car park after the walk so it was decided that we would have a look at the Woodland Campground and set up our tents for the night. Once dark and with no moon in the night sky, it was amazing how many stars that were in the sky, something us city slickers don’t see very often.
Saturday 1st September 2007: After paying our $3.30 camping fees for the night, we were off at 8.27am heading for Palm Valley. With a short stop at Tyler’s Pass and a visit to Albert Namatjira’s house, we started on the Palm Valley road at 10.14am for the 18 kilometre drive into the valley. It was definitely 4WD to get to Palm Valley. After a shot stop at the campground, we started off on the 4 kilometre drive from the campground to the valley car park where we ate our lunch before walking the 5 kilometre Mpulunjkinya walk through the palms. To complete this walk which took us through the centre of the valley and return via the flat path across the open scrub above the valley took us 2.5 hours.
With time getting away from us, we arrived at Hermannsburgh at 3.39pm where it was too late to have enough time to have a good look around so after a short drive we headed back towards Alice Springs with the intension to come back to Stanley Chasm the following day at midday to get the full effect of the sun shining into the chasm. We will also be revisiting Simpson Gap at the same time. It was 5.08pm by the time we finally arrived back at the caravans after two full days of sight seeing.
Sunday 2nd September 2007: Sunday is the day for the well known Pancake breakfast at the MacDonnell Range Caravan Park so our day started off with a Pancake breakfast before we headed back out to Simpson Gap and then onto Stanley Chasm where the light was best just after midday with the sub shining onto the Chasm floor making the walls as red as possible. If anyone is in a position to see this at midday, it shouldn’t be missed.
After arriving back at the Caravan Park for a late lunch, the remainder of the afternoon was spent sitting around the Park and recharging the body batteries after our last few days of sight seeing.
Monday 3rd September 2007: Today is our last day here in Alice Springs and there is still so much that we haven’t seen. We headed out to the East MacDonnell Range at 10.30am heading for Trephena Gorge. There was no water in this gorge, but the huge sweeping sand covered floor with it’s high rock walls makes it worth the trip out to look at it. On our way back we called in to look at Jessie Gap and Emily Gap which are a very short walks from where we parked our vehicles.
Back at the Park for lunch and then we all did our final shop to replenish our food supplies before we start heading south towards home tomorrow.
Tuesday 4th September 2007: As we only had a short drive to Stuarts Well where we were going to leave the caravans before going onto Chambers Pillar, we didn’t leave Alice Springs until 9.04am giving the caravans at Stuarts Well time to clear their sites. It was 10.14am when we arrived at Stuarts Well Caravan Park where we unhooked our caravans and waited until we had lunch before starting our way out to Chambers Pillar for the night.
We turned off of the bitumen at 12.53pm to start the 162 kilometre one way trip out to the Pillar. The road wasn’t as rough as some that we had traveled on during the last couple of weeks, but it did however allow a piece of timber to pierce the sidewall of our rear tyre. Once the tyre was changed, we continued towards the Pillar where we arrived at our destination at 4.28pm before we had a quick look at the Pillar and finally setting up our tents for the night. Then for some, it was back to the Pillar for the sunset photos while others photographed the Castle Rock. The early part of the night was spent sitting around the campfire talking to a couple who we had met there that afternoon.
Wednesday 5th September 2007: Up early to photograph the Pillar before packing the tents away and starting our way back to Stuarts Well and our respective caravans. It was a good run back to the caravans where we enjoyed our hot showers and a good feed for lunch. The remainder of the day was spent pondering over the fact that tomorrow we start heading for home with all of the tourist destinations now behind us and nothing more to look at but black road and white dotted lines.
Thursday 6th September 2007: We started heading for home by leaving Stuarts Well at 8.05am knowing that the best part of our holiday was now behind us. From here in it was planned to bush/free camp for the last four nights as we slowly traveled south on the Stuart Highway back to our respective homes. The weather was again kind to us with jumpers off while sitting in the vehicles.
Sally was lucky enough to pick up some freshly baked bread from the Eldunda Roadhouse while Bruce and Maree fueled up. The smell of the fresh bread in our vehicle was hard to resist, but we managed not to eat it while going along. It was a quick stop at the border as we passed through before we motored on to the Marla South Rest Area which was our intended stopover for the night.
Malcolm was out in front today and somehow he missed the Rest Area (not that it was a small one) so we kept going for another hundred kilometers until we arrived at Mathersons Bore Parking Bay at 2.57pm. It was amazing to see that after we had set up for the night that Phil and Lorraine who we had met earlier at Chambers Pillar, now arrived at the same Parking Bay for the night. After some nice chit chat around the fire, it was to bed in ready ness for the following day's travel.
Friday 7th September 2007: After a cooked breakfast on the campfire we set off heading for Lake Hart at 9.04am for our second night on the road. Bruce had a back tyre which was slowly going down so this was also changed before we left the Parking Bay. We refueled at Coober Pedy as well as doing some opal shopping and back on the road again at 10.49am.
Lunch at the Ingoman Rest Area where it was now very windy making us think that the weather was now deteriorating from what we had been lucky enough to enjoy over the last two and a half weeks. It was 2.14pm when Bruce fueled up at Glendambo and 3.15pm when we arrived at Lake Hart for the night. It was a bit of a walk, but we managed to find enough firewood for the night which allowed us to cook outside on the wood bbq for the last time on this trip.
Saturday 8th September 2007: The wind blew for most of the night and it continued for the remainder of our trip home. We left Lake Hart at 8.45am heading south towards our intended stop for the night which was to be North Tent Hill Rest Area which was the one that we stopped at for our first night. As time was in our favor, we decided to stop and have a look at the town of Woomera on our way home. It was amazing to see how much this town had improved and been cleaned up since we were there last time.
We finally arrived at the North Tent Hill Rest Area at11.47am where we all decided that it wasn't very nice there with the wind blowing the way that it was so we all thought that a night at Spear Creek was in order. After eating our lunch, we went on to Port Augusta where we visited my Father & Betty for a short period before we made our way to Spear Creek which is a working sheep station which has set up a very good country Caravan park.
Arriving at Spear Creek at 2.50pm, we set up the caravans and ordered our firewood which the Caravan Park supplies for no extra charge. With the wind continuing to blow at different rates during the remainder of the afternoon and night, we settled in for our last evening together before parting company with Malcolm and Sue in the morning.
Sunday 9th September 2007: Malcolm and Sue left the Caravan Park and us at 9.00am with the wind still blowing. It was 9.20am when we left as it was our intension to arrive at Port Wakefield at midday for a Hotel counter meal. Arriving at the Hotel at 11.55am, we all enjoyed a meal at the Rising Sun Hotel before completing the final ninety odd kilometres to get home where it was 1.45pm when we pulled up at home.
