From Mt Isa we travelled to Tennant Creek where we stayed overnight before heading on to Alice Springs.
We stayed in a motel in Tennant Creek and they had a sign in the room advising to keep the door shut as lizards, spiders, gecko’s, ants and other insects would enter the room. Don’t think they mentioned snakes, but that’s more than enough creepy crawlies there to ensure I kept the door closed.
Not very far out of Tennant Creek are the Devils Marbles. You cant miss them, they are almost at the edge of the highway. These giant granite boulders are known as Karlu Karlu and are sacred to the aboriginals. The boulders sit atop one another in piles and side by side, some balanced so precariously you think they will topple over any minute.
We arrived in Alice Springs yesterday and we are staying at a nice resort with little villas. It’s a bit of an oasis with green lawns and palm trees. At the end of the street the East McDonnell ranges rise dramatically. Across the road is the Todd River, well river bed to be exact. It is just sand. We have seen many completely dry rivers and creeks but none as big as the Todd.
Today we have visited Hermannsberg, Standley Chasm and Simpsons Gap. We drove out of Alice towards Hermannsberg with the West McDonnell Ranges looming around and ahead of us. The deep red mountains with sparse vegetation rise dramatically and tower above us as the road snakes alongside these mountains.
We arrived at Hermannsberg an old Lutheran Mission. The historical buildings are whitewashed German farm style buildings. Hermannsberg was home to Albert Namitjera and there is an art gallery with a large number of Albert and other member of the Namitjera family paintings as well as other artists.
Our next stop was Standley Chasm. The best time to be there is midday and one hour before and one hour after. It was nearly 1pm by the time we got there.
A short relatively easy walk scrabbling over some rocks, past the snow white gum trees and you reach the chasm, a small gap between these giant towering mountains. The sun shines on the walls of the chasm turning them a blaze of fiery red. The mountains tower above you and you feel like an ant standing there.
Then it was on to Simpsons Gap. If you are very lucky you may see some black footed rock wallabies but we didn’t see any today. Possibly scared off the hoardes of school kids on an excursion. This is another beautiful spot with a dry river bed, the Fincke River and where the gap is, is a large picturesque waterhole and the towering walls of the gap are reflected in the still waters of the waterhole.
Our drive back into Alice with mountains all around us, we notice they have changed dramatically in colour in the different light. Some have changed from the vibrant red to pinkish colours, some are purple and some are quite blue in colour.
The scenery is absolutely breathtaking.
Our next place to visit is the Old Telegraph Station in Alice and alongside the Todd River. Established in 1872 to relay messages between Darwin and Adelaide, it is the best preserved of the 12 stations along the Overland Telegraph Line. It was a telegraph station for 60 years and then became a school for aborigal children. The township of Alice Springs takes its name from the waterhole a short distance from there.
We then went up to Anzac Hill to await the beautiful sunset. I got some good sunset photos.
We set off early this morning from the Alice for the long drive to Uluru. There’s not a lot to see, a few roadhouses along the way and that’s about it.
It was extremely windy today. There was a crosswind and we had Spinifex barrelling across the road in front of us and red sand drifting across the road. Huge clouds of red dust could be seen for miles from vehicles using the unsealed roads nearby.
We stopped at a parking bay with picnic benches for lunch. It was blowing a gale and we had salad for lunch. It was so windy, the lettuce was being blown out of our bowls. You are probably thinking “why didn’t they just sit in the car” well, after nearly 4 hours couped up in the car anything was preferable to being in the car.
Not long before we arrived in Uluru we came to Mt Connor, often mistaken for Uluru. It is a large rock all by itself and it’s easy to see how it could be mistaken for Uluru.
Finally Uluru comes into view, dominating the landscape this deep red rock takes your breath away as you view it for the first time.
The wind is still gale force and as we went the National Park we are informed that the climb up the rock is closed due to the wind. We drove all around the rock, parked the car and got out to get a closer look but we didn’t walk all the way around it. We will do that tomorrow after watching the sunrise and hopefully it wont be as windy as today.
We watched the sunset tonight but unfortunately there was a lot of clouds. We have another opportunity tomorrow night to see a sunset.