Travelling through inland Australia: Day 33 Alice Springs

21 June

We had a bit of a slow start this morning. We slept in and then took our time over breakfast. That meant that we did not have enough time to drive down Namatjira Drive to the Ormiston Gorge. So we decided to travel east to the Ross River Resort which is about 80 kms from Alice Springs along the Ross River Highway.

This road took us along, and eventually through, the east McDonnell Ranges or the "East Macs" as the locals call them. They are a relatively low range of sandstone hills that have been cut through and uplifted to show all their bedding planes. This gives them a very dramatic and imposing appearance. These hills and escarpments are all that is left of a huge mountain range that, just on 400 million years ago, were as high as the Himalaya's are today.

At various along their length between Alice and Ross River, the hills are cut through by gaps and gorges that expose the layers of sandstone that make them up. We stopped at one of these, Emily Gap for a few photos. It is a beautiful and magical place. A deep sandy track leads from the carpark through a grove of river red gums the green of whose leaves contrast nicely against the the pink and reds of the sandstone bluffs that rise to the blue sky behind them. The path takes you into the gap between these high cliffs and it now becomes clear that you are walking along the dry bed of the river that has created this gap by exploiting a crack or fault in the rock.

This is an ancient place in human as well as geological terms. It has long been a sacred place for the indigenous tribes of the area and is a key point in the 3 caterpillars songline (time to do some more research on your favourite search engines). I was lucky. By visiting here at a time when the river was not flowing, I was able to see some wall art the contained the 3 caterpillars symbols.

This was the high point of the trip.

We then continued on our way to Ross River Resort along a road which, at this point, was a very good 110 kph Northern Territory Road. However, as we got closer the Ross River, the quality fell away until it was no better than an outback developmental road; a narrow bitumen strip up the middle with shoulders of loose stones on either side. The five kilometres of road works that was taking place on this part of the road, just made it worse. To make a difficult drive even more difficult, we encountered several blind bends and crests around and over which it was impossible to see any on-coming traffic travelling on the same centre strip of bitumen. Thankfully we managed these difficulties quite well. However, a word needs to be said about driving in the Northern Territory. I quickly discovered that while the quality of the road may fall off the speed limit doesn't and 110 kph really means 120. Things are made worse when you come across people who don't know how to drive these roads. We encountered one such person driving his Toorak Tractor at top speed with two wheels in the dirt. You can imagine the amount of shrapnel-like stone showers he was kicking up. Fortunately, I met him on a fully paved floodway and was able to pull well over.

So, we finally reached Ross River "Resort". They must be joking with this title. Resort, it certainly is not. The main building used to be an early homestead for Ross River Station, built in 1898. It has now been extensively altered to house a combination of bush pub and cafe. However you can still see the original mud brick walls and some of the original walls.

Around the central building are some very tired-looking and small accommodation cabins and the usual broken-down sheds that are typical of Australian rural properties. All in all a rather sad and forlorn little place.

We had hoped to have a picnic lunch here but we were not allowed to do that. So we came back to Alice and had our picnic at the local botanic gardens. This is a small place, but does give the opportunity to walk through and experience at close-hand, the kind of vegetation which, up until now, we have only been driving through.

There was one other highlight to the day. At 5 O'Clock we heard that unique sound that reminded us that the regular Sunday Didgeridoo session was starting. So along we went and we were amazed by the knowledge and sublime skill of the non-indigenous didge player who was putting on the show. Quite apart from enjoying his concert, I discovered that the didgeridoo is not the instrument that makes the music, it is the lips, cheeks, tongue and teeth of the player that makes the music. The didgeridoo is simply a hollow tube that does nothing more than amplify the sound made by the player's mouth. Our presenter showed us that you can get exactly the same sound out of a length of 40 mm poly pipe that you can buy from Bunnings, or any other tube for that matter. I now understand how my son Michael, when a teenager, could get a didge sound out of his diving snorkel!

Now for a few pictures