1998
Lionel the Landcruiser
and Tap-Tap go Walkabout

Lost in the bush -2
Day 6
Alice Springs

Hi Everyone, this is the report for Day Six. Hope you had fun reading the earlier stuff - please pass on to other people , but don't bore them with it - that is our job!

Rob in luxury: Muesli in bed in Alice Springs.

So today was really a rest and recovery day with time to sort ourselves out before we shoot off again and leave major towns for 9-10 days until we reach Darwin. First order of business was my shower and the bolt for my battery. The problem with that turned out to be the fact that today is a holiday in Alice Springs for the Alice show! Funny that, there was no advertising or anything, just a lot of closed shops. And the car was was still broken, so we basically had nothing to do.

After that start we thought we might as well have a look around the West MacDonnell Range, which is the mountain range to the west of Alice. We didn't do much, just along Namatjira drive about 120 km from Alice to Ormiston Gorge. There are a lot of 'gorges' and 'gaps' and 'chasms' along the way and the landscape is really interesting - a change for us from Perth for whom anything other than flat is an exception. Well, Ormiston Gorge sounded like a good place to start, with a nice walk of about 7-8 km which we thought would be a nice warm up for lunch.

Ormiston Gorge.

We asked at the Welcome centre and they said the best way was to go round the loop and finish at the gorge so off we went. It started out nice with a bit of a climb and some nice views over the dry creek bed. Then we turned north and came back towards the start and crossed over the creek a couple of times as it wound around. Then things began to get a bit difficult as the rocks got bigger and the path went straight down the creek with the walls getting higher on either side. After a while we were pretty much scrambling over boulders and the gorge was about 50-60m deep. It was a nice change from the flat walks we had been doing before - and were expecting it must be said. Finally we had to use some stepping stones to cross the water and then clamber over some big rocks to finally reach the water hole at the start of the gorge.

The walk took us 2 and a half hours and we were really ready for lunch by this stage. After which we had pretty much had enough for one day so we came back to Alice. It was a fun walk and we saw lots of nice stuff, including a little rock wallaby which was quite happy to munch away and be photographed and - interestingly for Rob - some kind of solanum with deep purple flowers and spiny stems. One to recommend, but only for the fit and agile.

Panoramic views - West Macdonnell Ranges, Ormiston Pound.

Coming back to Alice we stopped to fill up with diesel and just asked on the off-chance about battery brackets and got one at the Shell station! Rob was so surprised he started babbling in the shop and embarrassed me a bit, but at least my auxiliary battery is now well and truly fixed tight.

After that we had a bit of a walk around Alice and found a Coles open 24 hours(!) where we got some supplies, asked about the roads at the Police station (all fine at the moment) and went for a short walk up Anzac Hill which gives a lovely view over Alice towards the Gap. This is the break in the range to the south where the main road and the railway comes in and is a major feature in the scenery. A bit more shopping and Hild and Rob got some combination trousers (long pants with legs that zip off for when you want to where shorts). All in all, a rather quiet day to get ready for the long trip to come.

Early tomorrow we are off up the Tanami track towards Halls Creek. I don't think we'll get much chance to send any more till we get to Darwin, but keep checking 'cos you never know.

Bye for now

Lionel