World Australia Northern Territory Alice Springs

Jeanette & Jerry's Amazing Pacific Adventures 2011

Alice Springs - mountains Nov 1, 2011

Tuesday, November 1 - Alice Springs, Outback, Northern Territory (5)

This is our day to catch up on sightseeing. We decided to start with the East MacDonnell Mountains. First stop was Emily Gap, then Phillip Gap. Both gaps are places in the mountain range where there is a opening that allows a stream (creek or river) to flow through during the floods. The presence of the stream is obvious from the dry river beds, but none of the gaps or gorges we have visited have had water flowing – even though it rained yesterday. Both of these gaps have significance in the ancient aboriginal Dreamtime story of how the world came about. The story relates these gaps to battles the mythical caterpillars fought with others in the creation. Both gap sites are very beautiful; similar but different.

We came across a hawk or kestrel (or an eagle) standing on its prey on the side of the road. It appeared that his lunch was another bird, perhaps a pigeon. We spooked it when we stopped to take his photo – guess he is camera shy. He tried to make his lunch a carryout, but dropped it on takeoff. I’m betting the five second rule applies with him and that he returned when we drove off.

We had planned to go farther east but realized that we had not filled the tank and that there was no gas available the direction we were heading. So, we returned to Alice Springs, filled the tank and stopped by the Alice Springs Heritage Area to eat our lunch while watching a video about art teacher Geoffrey Bardon, who encouraged the aboriginals to create art that would be in the tradition of their customary body painting and what they had previously just drawn in the sand. The center has a giant caterpillar of rusty metal as a giant work of art, commemorating some of the dreamtime themes. The area also has a natural history museum (with interesting science projects in the gift shop), an art gallery and an aviation museum (that we did not take time to visit).

We then went off to the sites we had yet to explore in the West MacDonnell Mountains. We passed without stopping the road to the Serpentine Gorge (as our visit on Sunday had found water standing on the gravel road that had intimidated us from venturing further). We drove on to our first stop – the Ochre pits. This site was the source of the coloring pigments that the ancient aboriginals used to decorate themselves for ceremonies. It turns out that in geological history the area was a seabed that over the eons collected various layers of sediment (read different color too). Then along came an upheaval, the sea bed buckled and created mountains higher than the Himalayas, then in due course they wore down to the modest size we have now. The seabed ended up vertical at this spot, so the various layers are standing up as we look at a cross section along a river bed. This made a convenient shop for any earth tone an aboriginal could want. Very unusual!

We then proceeded on to Ormiston Gorge which has a large permanent water hole. The gorge has a couple of Ghost Gum trees on its side which provide a stark contrast against the red rock walls. We were alone there for a considerable time at the end of the day and the loud croaking of what sounded like a giant bullfrog echoed though the gorge. Shortly after, we returned to the car park and stopped at the loos. When Jeanette flushed the toilet in the ladies room, she noticed a frog was in the bowl and was trying desperately to get out. More evidence there is even aquatic life in the desert! At all of these sites today, the force of spring was evident from the loud humming of bees heard while standing under the blooming gum trees. They seemed to be alive with bees!

We then proceeded to the Glen Helen Resort. This is a full service site, the sort that would have the various blue symbols on the interstate highway sign (in this case a gas pump, knife and fork, and bed). Here that means they have one gas pump, a campground, a set of tents permanently set up that would be overnight accommodations, and a small set of buildings, including a general store with the essentials and a place to get some cooked food. None of the area is paved, of course. (It is the only site with any facilities in the 122 KM from Alice Springs). There were red cliffs opposite the site (Glen Helen Gorge), and the site was separated from them by a flowing river with green grasses standing on its edge!! We spotted what appeared to be an egret standing in in the water then nesting on water’s edge, and another larger dark water bird with red in its head. The cliffs were said to have rock wallabies, but neither we nor the folks we met had seen any of them.

We then drove just a bit further west to a lookout hilltop (Mt. Sounder) to look over the river valley and to watch the sun set. The river crossed the road just after we left Glen Helen, and we drove through the water flowing over the pavement. This might be thought of as a paved ford, but is just par for the course in the outback. This is the first posted “flood area” where we found this much water, previous encounters were just small puddles remaining from yesterday’s rain.

Darkness fell during our drive back to Alice Springs. We encountered one kangaroo quickly crossing the road way in front of our car. They don’t seem to stand and stare at the lights like deer, but rather keep going. This may not turn out to be true, as we have only encountered two while driving – so our experience is very limited. We did encounter a couple of large flying critters that we think were bats. They must have been nearby the road as we passed as when they took to flight they seemed to barely clear the top of the car as we drove along. We did encounter a bull standing on the shoulder as we passed –cattle are not fenced in many sections of the outback and we frequently crossed “grids” in the highway – cattle crossings.

We stopped at the Overlanders Steakhouse for dinner and each of us had a steak – Jeanette says it was the best steak she has had since leaving home. We tried to guess where the beef may have come from, but we don’t really know if it had browsed on desert scrub all its life (which is what we would like to think) or came from an American feed lot and shipped here frozen. Anyway, they were delicious. We finished off with a real Aussie specialty – pavlova. It was very good, had passion fruit pulp with the seeds poured over it and a dab of whipped cream and a strawberry on the side. In New Zealand, it was served with a fruit cocktail topping. And on the ship it was served different again. It seems no two of these deserts are alike!

Darkness fell during our drive back to Alice Springs. We encountered one kangaroo quickly crossing the road way in front of our car. They don’t seem to stand and stare at the lights like deer, but rather keep going. This may not turn out to be true, as we have only encountered two while driving – so our experience is very limited. We did encounter a couple of large flying critters that we think were bats. They must have been nearby the road as we passed as when they took to flight they seemed to barely clear the top of the car as we drove along.

We stopped at the Overlanders Steakhouse for dinner and each of us had a steak – Jeanette says it was the best steak she has had since leaving home. We tried to guess where the beef may have come from, but we don’t really know if it had browsed on desert scrub all its life (which is what we would like to think) or came from an American feed lot and shipped here frozen. Anyway, they were delicious. We finished off with a real Aussie specialty – pavlova. It was very good, had passion fruit pulp with the seeds poured over it and a dab of whipped cream and a strawberry on the side. In New Zealand, it was served with a fruit cocktail topping. And on the ship it was served different again. It seems no two of these deserts are alike!