NT Day 9

On my last day in Alice Springs I drove to the Telegraph Station and visited the original site of Alice Springs. This is a photo of the original Alice Spring, located on one side of the (dry) Todd River. The original surveyor who first explored the area was hired to survey a telegraph route from Darwin through to Adelaide. Mid points were needed near water sources. At the time of the survey, the Todd River was in flood. Water was running into a small cave and rushing out, giving the appearance of a spring. The surveyor named the spring "Alice Spring" after his bosses wife.


The Telegraph station was eventually built near by.

This is a picture of the evapourometer, which was used to measure evapouration rates at Alice Springs.

Once the telegraph station was closed, the site was used to house "half-caste" aboriginal/european children, who had been orphaned or taken from their parents. The guide was one of those children. His memories of his time there were very positive, although from some of the stories on display, others of children felt differently. There seems to be general agreement that the women who ran the centre cared for the children, and tried very hard to give them a good life, but that the center was massively overcrowded and underresourced.

After seeing the Telegraph Station, and reading about some of the early history of Alice Springs, I drove to Alice Springs airport, returned my hire car, and took a plane back to Melbourne. It was a great trip, but I was very happy to be home.

NT Day 8

The next morning (Friday) I drove back to the MacDonnel Ranges, this time to Simpsons Gap. On the road leading into the gap there was a walking trail called the Ghost Gum walk, leading tot he Cassia Hill walk. I followed these and discovered that Cassia Hill was a small but steep hill on the surrounding flat landscape. There was a great view of the gap from the top of the hill, as well as some signage explaing the geology of the area.

On the way back to the car I crossed over the Larapinta trail bike track, which cyclists can use to ride from Alice Springs along a large section of the West MacDonnel ranges.

Simpsons gap itself had very little water in it compared to the previous two water holes I had visited, but had a lovely sandy beach. It was a very pretty spot.

The next stop was Standly Chasm. This was the first of the MacDonnal Ranges spots with an entry fee, used to maintain facilities in the area. I paid the fee, at the kiosk, then followed the really lovely walking track to the Chasm.
The walking track was through some of the greenest plant life I had seen in the Red Centre.

The Chasm itself is very striking. The red/orange color is magnificent, and the tall, narrow break in the mountains is remarkable.

After visiting Standly Chasm I had seen all the sites I wanted to visit in the West MacDonnal Ranges, so I returned to Alice Springs.

My next stop in Alice Springs was to visit the Reptile Centre. The Reptile centre is fairly unimpressive from the outside, as it is housed in an old suburban house. However inside there are two largish rooms with many snakes and lizards in enclosures. The back yard area also has snakes and lizards, as well as a crocodile. Two of the lizards in the back yard area, in a large enclosure, were Perentie, a kind of giant goanna. The were easily a meter and a half long.

After looking around the displays, I returned to the main room for a talk and demonstration of some of the reptiles. At the end of the presentation, the audience were able to handle a few of the lizards and one of the snakes.



The snake pictured is a black headed python, and was very placid. The scales were surprisingly soft and warm. Because snakes are cold blooded, I expected it to be cold to the touch, but of course snakes are actually room temperature, and the room was kept fairly warm.

I really enjoyed the reptile centre, particularly the chance to interact with the reptiles.

*Edit*

That evening I bought some Possum food from the place where I was staying, and fed the rock wallabies that come down for a feed at the back of the motel. They were very tame, and would even eat food from my hand.

NT Day 7

The next morning (Thursday), I drove out to the Western MacDonnal Ranges. The sealed road only runs as far as Glen Helen Gorge, so I stopped there, with the plan of working my way back to Alice Springs, seeing the accessible sites on the way.

When I go to Glen Helen Gorge I stopped at the guesthouse there, and walked to the Gorge, a short distance away.

This was the largest open body of water I saw on the whole trip. The tourist attractions along the West MacDonnel Ranges are mostly a series of waterholes, which attract wildlife, and allow plants to grow. Glen Helen gorge is fairly small, but with a large waterhole.

After seeing the gorge I headed back to the guesthouse for lunch. After lunch I was able to attend a Ranger talk about animal signs (tracks and droppings). The ranger had a large mat with stencilled animal tracks, and a series of plastic containers with sample droppings. He challenged us to match the tracks and droppings to the animal that left them. Very interesting. He also had a few bones and skulls from animals, which he handed around and asked us to identify. Some of the animals were wallaby's, dingos, emus, a large lizard, and kangaroos. After the talk I found myself keeping an eye open for tracks and droppings, and was able to identify a number of them over the next few days.

After the walk I drive back towards Alice Springs and stopped at Ormiston Gorge and walked to the waterhole.

The waterhole here is smaller, but with a kind of sandy beach. It is apparently a popular swimming spot in the warmer months.

I then drove to the Ochre Pits and waked down to see them. The Ochre pits were a source of Ochre used for ceremonies by the indigenous peoples of the area. Ochre was traded up and down the continent, so good sources were highly prized.

By this time it was getting late, so I headed back to Alice Springs.

NT Day 6

On my first morning in Alice Springs I took it easy, getting some washing done, and generally taking a break.

In the afternoon, I headed out to the Alice Springs Desert park. This is effectively a Botanical Gardens, with sections devoted to the types of terrain found in Central Australia.

There are also a number of large aviaries, with local bird life, and a nocturnal centre. This building houses a number of nocturnal animals, as well as some reptiles.

The final display I visited was the Birds of Prey demonstration. I sat with a number of other visitors in a small amphitheatre. After a while, a large owl flew into the amphitheatre, and a ranger gave a talk about the owl. The owl was fed, and flew out, and one by one several other large predatory birds flew in, and were fed. It was a great experience, and one I recommend. I have some photos somewhere, but I need to dig them out. I will upload them to this blog when I find them.

NT Day 5

The morning after doing the King's canyon rim walk, I checked out of the King's Canyon Resort, and drove back to King's Canyon. This time I did the Creek walk, down the centre of the Canyon. This walk is much easier going than the Rim walk, but still well worth while. I got a completely different perspective of the Canyon.

Here is a shot from the end of the creek walk, plus a shot of a large rock that has fallen off the canyon walls, into the creek.

After finishing the Creek walk (an hour, rather than the nearly four hours for the rim walk), I drove back to the highway and continued South. I stopped at the Kathleen springs walking track, and walked to the springs. The walking track is less spectacular than King's Canyon, but still interesting. The waterhole called Kathleen Springs is very lovely, well worth the relatively short walk.

I then continued south, stopping at King's Creek station for lunch. The hamburgers there are excellent. I filled up with petrol, flinching a bit at the price ($2.18 per litre), but for such an out of the way place it was probably very reasonable. I enquired about the helicopter flights, but was told that they needed at least two people to make it worth while to go up. As I was travelling alone, that was not possible, so I headed back to the highway.

As I was in a 2-wheel drive, I needed to stick to sealed roads, and was therefor unable to take the round trip to Alice Springs. So retraced my steps south, back to the Sturt Highway, (only a couple of hundred kms!) and then drove east to Erldunda, then North to Alice Springs. The drive took nearly 5 hours, so I was pretty worn out by the time I got to Alice Springs. I was staying at the Heavitree Gap Outback Lodge, on the outskirts of Alice Springs, which is located right next to the Heavitree Gap. This is a pass through the MacDonnal Ranges. I checked in, and had a very early night.

Northern Territory Day 3 (Evening)

The final night of my stay at Yulara, I took a short star-watching tour. We were taken to the Yulara observatory, and given a guided tour of the constellations above. The stars are very clear from Yulara, without all of the light pollution of a major city.

For the final part of the star-watching, we were set up with a couple of telescopes, and given the chance to see some of the highlights of the local sky. I got to see Alpha-Centauri, as a binary system (I think I managed to see the third dot of the trinary, but I may be kidding myself there). I saw Jupiter, and the four largest moons, and Saturn and it's rings, which were amazingly clear. Friends tell me that you can see this stuff from out in country Victoria if you have the right equipment, but it was new to me, and an amazing experience.