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| Emily Gap |
As we had spent a lot of time out in the West MacDonnell
ranges on out last trip around Oz we decided to do a quick trip through easier
part of the East MacDonnell Ranges. Plan was to stop off at the tourist points
on the way to Ross River Resort for lunch and then finally get the Pajero into
4WD and head out to see the 5900ish petroglyphs (fancy name for rock carvings)
out at N’Dhala Gorge which is via a
22klm rough 4WD track from the resort. Unfortunalty the road into N’dhala gorge
was closed due to recently heavy rains (can you believe our luck – a road
closed due to rain in the driest part of the driest continent in the world!).
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| Caterpillar (striped) paintings - Emily Gap |
First stops were Emily and Jessie Gap’s which surprisingly
are gaps in the ranges cut by Emily and Jessie Creeks J.
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| Jessie Gap |
Both have easy walks from
the car parks to the Gap and there are Aboriginal Rock Paintings in the Gorge.
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| Doing the Corroboree Rock rock |
Next stop is Corroboree
Rock which is an interesting formation.
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| Corroboree Rock |
There is a beaut little 15
minute walk around the Rock and if you listen carefully you can hear the
didgeridoo’s in the rustling wind (well almost).
From Corroboree Rock it’s a half hour drive to the entrance
to Trephina Gorge National Park. It’s an
easy drive in the 12klm to the end of the road the first 4klm being blacktop
and the remainder good quality dirt road. There are two camping areas that have
room for caravans and there were a few vans parked in these (something for us
to consider next time we are near Alice Springs).
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| Yep - lets do the Gorge Rim walk! |
There are a number of walk options from the
day visit areas rating from easy to moderate to difficult. We decided to take
on the “moderate to hard” Trephina Gorge
walk signposted as a walk up to the Gorge Rim and then return via the river bed
of around 1 hour.
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| on our way to the top of the rim |
As we slowly made our way up the uneven rocky path to the top
of the rim I was starting to think that we had bitten off more than we could
chew as Linda is only 4 months out from a total hip replacement. So in a slow
step by step trek we made our way around the ascents and descents finally into
the gorge river bed.
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| What! - we are are not at the top yet! |
My girl is a tough and determined lassie - must be her
Scottish blood (half mule and half mountain goat J)
– took us more than an hour and half but quiet an achievement for Linda
(considering she was also carrying some of the bloody rocks she is always
collecting J).
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| Trephina Gorge - love those red cliffs |
After our trek we had a half hour drive to Ross River Resort
for lunch.
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| That guy on the left was part of Linda's burger! |
Barra and Chips for me and a burger for Linda that had a meat paddy
made from half a cow! Good tucker! There is a caravan park, a campground and
some simple cabins available at Ross River Resort – once again all accessible
by bitumen road so another option for our next trip back this way. Couple of tidbits from Ross River Resort:
They had a sign saying the there is no “Ross River Virus” at
Ross River Resort (guess they got sick of being asked), and
The Chef couldn’t work the till or use a camera – seemed
more interested in playing pool with the young backpacker lassie working their
then serving customers (perhaps he had his priorities right?).
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| John Hayes Rock Hole |
Noting the N’dhala Gorge road we closed we headed back to
Trephina Gorge National Park to a track we had noticed on the way in to John
Hayes Rock hole – a 4 klm 4WD only track to a small camp and a couple of rock holes
at the start of a small gorge. Finally the Paj was in 4WD!! and with Kerry
smiling and Linda grimacing off we went. Turned out that 4WD wasn’t really
required it was more about high clearance and wheel placement over the rocky
sections – still the last few hundred meters of very rocky track would put a
small smile on my mate Pete Ridley’s face. Nice spot – not sure if I would do
it again – but off the bucket list.
On the way back to Alice we found some good firewood outside
of the National Park area so good excuse to get out the new chain saw and have
a cup of tea. We drove off the road to collect the wood and surprise surprise
found ourselves bogged. After laughing about the irony of this we put the Paj
into 4WD and easily extracted ourselves.
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