The following day we drove back to Alice Springs and stayed again at the same place as previously. We had two nights in Alice and yesterday we drove out to see Glen Helen Gorge, Ormiston Gorge, the Ochre Pits, Serpentine Gorge and Ellery Big Hole, all of which are accessible from the same highway so we went to Glen Helen first. It is very pretty but a little disappointing as a lot of the things to see are beyond the waterhole and there was no way to get there. Next we went to Ormiston Gorge which was much bigger than Glen Helen and the big surprise was the Ochre Pits. We weren’t sure whether or not to go and see them. We are so glad we did. They are amazing. The ochre pits, still used today, are at the site of a dry river bed and the cliffs beside the river, are coloured red, orange and yellow in waves of colour, reminding me very much of a marble cake.

You don’t realise just how far away you are from the things we usually take for granted. We went shopping in a Coles Supermarket and all the fresh foods sections were almost bare. I heard a lady say that the truck hadn’t been this week and to be careful of the use by date on the few perishables on the shelves.
Also, tonight at our motel they had put the biscuits in the fridge. They were individually wrapped packets and when we opened one a pile of ants came crawling out of the little holes in the biscuits, yuk. One way to ensure you stick to your diet I guess, as I certainly wasn’t eating the biscuits after that.
Today we left Alice very early this morning and drove to Daly Waters. We are staying at the Hiway Inn, a roadhouse at the junction of the two highways. Just down the road is the famous Daly Waters pub which we visited this evening. The historic pub houses a collection of bras, undies, caps, hats, thongs and other knick knacks. Funny signs,such as “angle parking, any angle will do”.
There’s not much to see along the highway but we stopped at a couple of the roadhouses along the way, Aileron where they have a gigantic statue of the Aileron man on a hill and then Wycliff Well, home of the most UFO sightings in Australia, strange lights in the sky, a bit like the Min Min lights near Boulia. We stopped briefly in Elliott and then we went to Newcastle Waters an old historic town where the highway used to go. There is a school and a park with statue of a drover stockman.Tomorrow we headed for Katherine stopping for a swim at the thermal springs at Mataranka.