Jaypatrol

Then on the 23rd, Lindy returned from her Singapore trip. It was great to see her smiling face as we met her at the airport. I didn’t realise how much I had missed her.

We had been baby-sitting her mobile home in her absense. And Lindy had bought a new video camera for us in Singapore to replace our other one that had died on us earlier, before we had realised till we went to use it the first time on the trip. It was going to cost us $600 to send it to Adelaide to get it fixed (which meant we would be without it for over 2 weeks) and it was a lot cheaper for us to buy another one and Lindy helped us out there. The new one is smaller and more compact than the other one, so we really ended up better off.

The day after Lindy arrived back, Lindy & I went to the airport to meet Lindy’s friend, Margie, who was coming to Alice Springs from Perth. Margie was going to be travelling with Lindy for part of her trip, at least till she got to Queensland. Like when we met up with Lindy, we all hit it off really well with Margie.

It was Lindy’s birthday on the 24th.

Before we left Aice Springs, we spent one more night at the Heavitree Gap Hotel, to see Chris and Scott perform one last time. (Margie hadn’t seen them yet), so it was a bit sad to say good bye to these two old friends.

On the 27th we decided to move out of Heavitree Gap and head for Ross River for a couple of days and look around the East McDonnell ranges this time. This was going to be a different kind of camping as this is a more isolated area, so we needed to stock up on food before we left.

The East McDonnell Ranges are much different to the West McDonnell Ranges in many ways.
The most obvious being that the East McDonnells were very close to the road and driving to Ross River was very picturesque and so much easier to access the various gorges and viewing sites.

We stopped of at Emily Gorge and Jessie’s Gap on the way there. Again these were very unique areas. There was some rock art in these two places as well.

Emily Gorge had beautiful rock formations with varying colours. There was unusual rock art here and an information board that explained how the Ochre and White Lime were mixed for the painting. It also explained the story behind the paintings.

Jessie Gap was different again. With its rugged rock formation, layers of colours and sandy floor. There is also another information board telling the significence of the both Emily Gorge and Jessie Gap. It also tells the how they are associated to local Aboriginal tribes.

The next stop was at Corroboree Rock. Corroboree Rock is a very sacred place for the local indiginous people. It is a large rock shaped like a big arch. It can be seen from the road for some distance. You can walk all around this huge rock and see the full structure of it. Again there are information boards on this site explaining the sacred nature and power of the site. This information also asks that you respect this rock outcrop as if you would a church. Another information board explains how the rock was formed. It is an interesting site.

Moving on from here, we finally arrive at Ross River Camping Ground. This was an old Station in days of old and included a hotel as well as having their own camels, horses and usual farming requirements. The hotel is old and there is a lot of memorabilia to browse through and you can still get a home cooked meal and a cold drink here. ( We dined at the Hotel on the last night we were there. Delicious! We were not disappointed.

The camping ground is a paddock that has powered sites and wood cut for the fireplaces scattered around the park. There is a resident camp ranger here too. There were a few other campers enjoying the outback feeling with us.

As the day drew to a close the long shadows from the surrounding trees gave the evening a special atmosphere. Before too long, it was time to light the camp fire to add to this atmosphere.

We settled down to a cosy night around the camp fire, when the park ranger came over to introduce himself and to invite us to his camp site for some of his special camp fire damper. He already had it cooking.

After we had cleaned up after our evening meal, we headed over to his camp site and his damper. Wow! What a surprise! It would have been the best damper I have ever tasted. And I have not had another one as good since. Thankfully, he had baked two, so there was plenty to go back for seconds, which of course, we did. He had a range of different toppings, there were various jams, honey and golden syrup. I tried it with the golden syrup – Yummy!

Not long after this, the hotel cook, (Derek), wandered over for some company as he had finished work for the night. He was a little under the weather after sipping too much of the cooking wine, but he picked up the rangers guitar and started to play and sing. He had his Darwin Stubby beside him, so he was ready to settle in for the night. (For those who haven’t seen a Darwin Stubby, it is about 2.5 litres of beer in a huge stubby shaped bottle or flagon). It was unfortunate he was a bit inebriated, so the vocals cords were a little too loose. But we had a good time anyway.

As we were weary from travelling, we retired early, but Derek and his mate, the camp ranger were still going long after we went to bed. We could hear them singing and playing an harmonica in the background, well into the night.

The next morning, we were up early and after the usual chores and planning time, we packed some afternoon tea and headed to Arltunga. This was an old mining town in its heyday. Most of the old buildings are still in reasonably good condition, concidering their age and the village is still visible. It was great walking around the small community buldings imagining life in the days when it was a thriving town. All the modern machinery of the day was set up around the area, as was the essential services you would see around town. The plans of the area were available at an information post at the entrance of the park. This was a great to have as we wandered around and looked into each of the houses and buildings. Each one was unique and contained he character of the original inhabitants. The flooring was still intact in most of the houses too. One even had what looked like an oven resembling a wood fired pizza oven. The Battery Pit was still visible too. As well as the old Cornish boiler. There is also the old prison cell there, they even had baddies there in those days. As we continued to walk around the area, we came across the old mine site. It is amazing how these men would dig into the ground or the side of a mountain and crawl through it on their belly’s looking for their fortunes, of which most never saw the fulfillment of their dreams. As we walked further afield we saw little round houses. These were so tiny, they must have only contained the sleeping quarters for the miner.

As we left the mining town area, we passed the ruins of the old Arltunga Hotel. We then passed the present day Arltunga Hotel . This is built of corregated iron and is still in use today.

Driving back to camp, we saw some Brumby’s grazing in the paddock and then we saw a pack of Dingo’s wandering through another paddock, being lead by a black dingo.

We arrived back at camp late and tired but exhilerated from our big day out.

Unfortunately, the next day was a non-event for me as I was not well and slept most of the day. But Arthur, Lindy & Margie went to Trephina Gorge. They took lots of photo’s and video to show me what I had missed out on. Trephina Gorge Is another picturesque area. It has high mountain tracks to walk and rugged countryside to be investigated. They walked along the top rim of the gorge and looked down into the riverbed that meandered around at the bottom.
On the way home they came across some camels grazing in the bush.
The three of them came home exhilerated by the time they had whilst there and I wish I had been up to joining them on the discovery trail.

After lunch, I still was not up to doing too much, so the three amigos headed for N’Dhala Gorge at the back of the camping ground. Here they walked along the riverbed into the gorge. Again, this area was different. The rockwall was more rugged and the area has a beauty of its own. They trekked around admiring the formations and colours. They took photos and video again. They loved this area and came home excited about their trek into the gorge.

By the time they got back, I was up to sitting around the camp fire and enjoyed hearing of their adventures of the day.

The next morning we were up early and packed up ready to head back into Alice Springs. Lindy & Margie were moving on to Hermansburg, where they planned to stay the night in the lonely caravan park up there. As they hadn’t seen it yet. We had to get our microwave oven replaced, because it died a few days before we left for Ross River. Jayco had honoured the warranty and agreed to replace it and fit another air vent in the back of the cupboard to give better ventilation so that it wouldn’t happen again. We had to spend the day waiting for it to be fitted and the vent to be put in. As the repairs were to be done by a Jayco repair agent whose workshop was in a different caravan park to where we stayed earlier, we decided to book into this park for the time it was being fitted and in the meantime, I would do some washing as I could not get into the caravan till it was finished and it was better for me to keep out of the way.

After the job was finished we had an early night as we were leaving early in the morning to head for Gem Tree and to meet up with Lindy and Margie again.

The morning dawned and it was time to move on and time to say farewell to Alice Springs. We had been there for four weeks and had loved the time we spent there. We had grown to love The Alice. But all good things must come to an end. So long Alice Springs – till we meet again.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 30th, 2006 at 11:27 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.