Albert Namitjira's House, where he grew up near Hermannsberg.
Amazing land scapes at Serpentine Gorge.
Night at Ellery Creek where the kids slept in swags and woke up covered in frost!!! They were all still warm thought and slept well! Remarkable.
Walking down Ellery Creek.
Have been out of range for the last few days but tonight we are back in civilisation at Mataranka. Last night we spent at a free roadside campspot basically beside the highway, where you are allowed to stay overnight. There were about 30 other vans of various descriptions all taking advantage of a night without fee's. We got chatting to a few people around the campfire & met an older couple from Mt Eliza! They spend about 5 mths of every year traveling round some part of Aus. They had just come back from a few weeks at Wadeye (Port Keats), which is a remote Aboriginal community - John Howard did a PR stunt there a few yrs back. Had a great chat to them about their experiences there. They told us about the spot we are staying in tonight. Bitter springs campground. Its near some springs that are less popular than the main Mataranka springs where all the coaches pull in. We had a great time this avo soaking in the warm, crystal clear water. You can float along carried by the current, down through the creek (in warm spring water) along about 500 m and then jump out and race back to the start. We were looking out for long-necked turtles that are supposedly there but didn't see one.
We left Alice Springs on Mon after spending 2 nights out in the West Mac Donnell Ranges. It is really gorgeous out there and we could have spent a lot longer there. While we were in the West Mac's we based ourselves at Ellery Creek waterhole and spent a day exploring Serpentine Gorge, the Ochre pits, Ormiston Gorge (very impressive) and an old meteorite crater called Ngarla. We did a small section of the Mereenie loop road along the Larapinta Hwy and called in to Hermannsberg community.
We left Alice Springs on Mon after spending 2 nights out in the West Mac Donnell Ranges. It is really gorgeous out there and we could have spent a lot longer there. While we were in the West Mac's we based ourselves at Ellery Creek waterhole and spent a day exploring Serpentine Gorge, the Ochre pits, Ormiston Gorge (very impressive) and an old meteorite crater called Ngarla. We did a small section of the Mereenie loop road along the Larapinta Hwy and called in to Hermannsberg community.
There is an interesting historical area here that presents the mission history of this community. Unfortunately we got there a bit late and missed out on seeing most of it. Felt a bit like an intruder driving in through the community - and we probably were- so we didn't stay too long. Bananas stuffed with chocolate wrapped in foil on the fire that night. Mmmmmmmmmm.
Monday we packed up and headed back towards Alice and stopped in at Stanley Chasm. I had been there before and we nearly drove past it but so glad we didn't. It's really a lovely spot, didn't see it at midday as you are supposed to, with sun beaming down into it, but beautiful none the less. After that we took the kids to the Alice Springs Desert Wildlife Park. This was really great, we spent about 4 hours there wandering through the different habitat displays, bird avairies and a great nocturnal house with Bilby's, Quoll's and Mala's (nearly extinct desert mini wallaby/marsupial). Kids really enjoyed it. At the end they had a 'Birds of Prey' demo with Whistling Kytes, Falcons,Black Kytes , spinifex pigeons. The boys have been hawk spotting ever since as we drive along.
Hope to get to Darwin tomorow to catch up with Pete's folks and his brother Ken. It will be nice to stop driving for a few days (hopefully 5 days) and to wash all of our filthy clothes.
Monday we packed up and headed back towards Alice and stopped in at Stanley Chasm. I had been there before and we nearly drove past it but so glad we didn't. It's really a lovely spot, didn't see it at midday as you are supposed to, with sun beaming down into it, but beautiful none the less. After that we took the kids to the Alice Springs Desert Wildlife Park. This was really great, we spent about 4 hours there wandering through the different habitat displays, bird avairies and a great nocturnal house with Bilby's, Quoll's and Mala's (nearly extinct desert mini wallaby/marsupial). Kids really enjoyed it. At the end they had a 'Birds of Prey' demo with Whistling Kytes, Falcons,Black Kytes , spinifex pigeons. The boys have been hawk spotting ever since as we drive along.
Hope to get to Darwin tomorow to catch up with Pete's folks and his brother Ken. It will be nice to stop driving for a few days (hopefully 5 days) and to wash all of our filthy clothes.
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