Tnorala and 2.5 days in the West MacDonnell National Park

On day 8 of our Red Centre Tour, we drove from Palm Valley to the Tnorala (Gosse Bluff) Conservation Reserve. This is a huge meteorite crater with quite high mountains around it. It is also a very important site for the Aboriginal people, so you need permission to go there. But we got it at the same time as the permission for the Mereenie Loop road and it was still valid (until 2 days after purchase). So everything was fine.

After we had passed the construction site road near Hermannsburg again, we had to turn right towards the north after about 30 km. Then you turn left again towards the reserve, where you could already see the mountains from afar. The road there again required a 4WD, but luckily we have one :D With the car, you could drive right into the crater and then take a little walk through the plain, including a lookout. It was really beautiful! Especially from the lookout, you could see the surroundings very well and how beautifully the mountains are arranged in a circle around the vegetated valley. Down below, there were lots of flowers and colorful grasses. It was really a stop that was worth it. We also had lunch there right away :)

Afterwards, we continued north towards the West MacDonnell National Park. After a few kilometers, we stopped at Tyler Pass because there was a super nice view of the Tnorala Mount and the hilly landscape of the West MacDonnell National Park. The next stop was Glen Helen after about 50 km. We rested a bit at the roadhouse because we didn't feel like hiking and ate a beef pie and a sausage roll. Both were warmed up in the microwave by the bartender :D Then we went to Glen Helen Gorge. It's only a 2-minute walk from the car park. At the end of the gorge, there is a large waterhole where some people actually went swimming (we only dipped our feet) and where you have to swim through if you want to do the walk behind the gorge, which leads to a rock painting. Quite crazy or rather something for the summer :D After the foot bath, we walked barefoot back to the car and really enjoyed not wearing hiking shoes for once. We immediately put on flip-flops at the car ^^

Afterwards, we continued to the campground at Ormiston Gorge, where we wanted to spend the night. It was already quite crowded, but we still got a spot. There should be showers and a kiosk there, so we thought it would be a slightly better campsite. In the end, there was indeed a kiosk, but for the entire campground there was one shower, two toilets, and one sink in the women's toilet. There was also a huge dead spider in one of the toilets, which had already been broken down by ants, and there were live spiders behind the door of the other toilet. The shower was also not really clean. And for that, we paid 10 AUD per person!! The campground in Palm Valley was much nicer, there were 2 showers and 2 sinks for fewer people, and it only cost 6.60 per person. The place in Ormiston Gorge was really a disappointment. But the evening was still quite nice, we made pasta with pesto and parmesan and watched an episode of Elementary in bed. Very cozy :)

The next day, after sleeping in due to my health (until 9 o'clock), I had a nasty surprise: in addition to my still persistent cold, I suddenly had red, itchy spots all over my body! They looked like small mosquito bites and were only on the areas that were not covered by my pajamas and not on my legs either. At first, we thought it was bed bugs or something like that, but Andi didn't have anything. Then maybe a rash from the illness, but the distribution of the spots was too strange and the spots themselves were too big. So the only thing left was some bug that liked me and spared Andi. Of course, I was very happy about it, especially because the spots were really itchy and I looked like I had chickenpox... That was another reason to return to Alice Springs as soon as possible, so we planned to arrive there the next day. Another reason was that we were really not eager to go hiking anymore and another reason was that our breakfast spreads like Nutella, peanut butter, and cheese were running out :D

Before going back to civilization, we still wanted to see a few things. So we went to Ormiston Gorge first. You can go down to the gorge where there is water and where many people were swimming again. But when we were there, apparently some school class was also there and they were squealing so much because the water was so cold that we quickly retreated (the rock walls also reflected the screams quite a bit). The lookout was supposed to be much more spectacular anyway, so we went up there. The walk up there was called Ghost Gum Walk because there are many ghost gums at the gorge, which are supposed to contrast with the red rock wall. Although everything was quite green as always and the rock wall was not really red because of that, the walk up there was still beautiful and the view truly breathtakingly beautiful! In my condition, the path with the many stairs up to the lookout was very exhausting and we soon went back down again. By the way, if you wanted to do the entire loop-shaped Ghost Gum Walk, you would have had to swim through water on the way back, just like in Glen Helen. Brrr.

After the little trip to Ormiston Gorge, we went back to the main road of the national park and further east to the Ochre Pits. There, you could admire a very colorful rock wall where the Aboriginal people have been mining ochre for thousands of years. They use it for paintings, body paintings, ceremonies, as well as ointments or wraps for illnesses. There were so many different colors, really cool. We also used the picnic area for lunch and then continued driving.

The next stop was Serpentine Gorge. There was a walk to a lookout that we also did. From up there, you really had a great view of the West MacDonnell Ranges in one direction and the gorge in the other direction. It was said that the gorge from below is not that spectacular (hint from another hiker coming towards us), so we skipped the way there and walked back to the car park.

Next, we drove to Ellery Creek Big Hole. It's a big waterhole that is quite similar to the one at Glen Helen. You could also go swimming or do a walk there, but because Andi and I were quite exhausted, we decided to lie in the sand and read :D That was also really nice and very relaxing. There was also a campground there for 6.60 per person, but because we didn't like it at all and it was already very crowded, we drove a few kilometers further to a free campground. There were no toilets again, but there was a magnificent view of the landscape of the national park. We could observe a super beautiful sunset there. Plus, we still had firewood left from Palm Valley, so we could make a cozy campfire where we ate our tomato-vegetable rice.

At some point, when it was already dark, another car came to the spot and a man got out and came to us. He then asked if we had 5 liters of petrol because his car broke down and he can't make it to the next petrol station with the remaining petrol. Unfortunately, we couldn't help him because our petrol canisters were empty. We wanted to drive to Alice the next day and didn't need any canisters anymore. Somehow, the guy was a bit strange, standing there by our fire and not leaving when we told him that we didn't have any petrol for him. He was also really hard to understand and we thought he might have been drinking. At some point, he went to our neighbor and asked him for petrol. But he had diesel and couldn't help him either. I don't know if he asked the other two cars at the spot, but our neighbor recommended him to just stay here for the night and wait until someone comes who can help him. That's what he did. Half an hour later or so (we were just about to jump into bed), he came to us again and asked if we had a moisturizer because his arms and legs were really dry. At that moment, I thought to myself: aha, he's probably mooching off people often. It was a pretty strange situation, but then I gave him some of my body oil. When we finally sent him away again, we went to bed. The next morning at breakfast, our neighbor came to us and asked if the guy also asked us for petrol. We talked a bit and then the strange guy came again and asked our neighbor for hot water (he still spoke so strangely). He made him a kettle because he had a caravan and they talked for a while. We finished breakfast (the flies were soooooooooo annoying that day!!) and got ready to leave. The strange guy then drove in front of us and before we could leave, our neighbor came to us again and explained that the guy is a leech. We should definitely not stop again if we see him on the side of the road and not think of him anymore. So we had met the first person who is not helpful themselves but takes advantage of the helpfulness of Australians that is present everywhere. Pretty mean.

One more thing I noticed with the two men: they pretty much ignored me. Whenever one of the two wanted to talk to us, he went to Andi and didn't pay attention to me and didn't even greet me. No wonder neither of the two had a woman. Some Australians are still very traditional. I also noticed that in 90% of the cars with couples, the man is driving. But well, just a side note :D

When we were back on the road after the somewhat crazy night and morning, we thought about what else we wanted to see. Standley Chasm is actually the most spectacular gorge in the ranges because there are 80m high walls lining a gorge that is only 9m wide. We would have driven there for a photo, but we knew that you have to pay an entrance fee of 12 AUD per person and we didn't want to do that. It simply wouldn't have been worth it because I didn't feel well enough to walk through there relaxed. So we continued to Simpsons Gap. The weather was cloudy that day and we were already afraid that it would start raining again, but we were lucky. And the Gap was so beautiful! We were glad that we went there again in good weather. There was again a little waterhole and the hint of a river, many plants, and impressive rocks. It was very idyllic. Then other visitors pointed to the rocks and said they were seeing rock wallabies. But we couldn't see anything and only with the help of a man, his description, and zooming in with the camera, could we see the wallabies. They are so small and incredibly well camouflaged in the environment. It's a mystery to me how a person can spot such an animal in the surroundings. I didn't even see a wallaby with the naked eye when I knew where it was! But it was cool that we saw any at all because while they occur more often, they are difficult to spot or they rest during the day in some rock crevices.

After the excursion to Simpsons Gap, we drove back to Alice Springs. It wasn't far anymore and so we arrived there around noon. The odometer of our car actually showed just over 1,500 km after the tour. It's amazing how much distance you cover there!

More adventures of the next few days will be in the next entry :)