To Alice Springs

After leaving Glen Helen Gorge . . .

 

 

. . . we took in Ormiston Gorge . . .

 

 

. . . . and Standley Chasm, where Kim thought she ought to hold up the rock face in case it fell down!

 

 

Next we dropped in on the Ocre Pits, where Aboriginals took the colours for their body paint and cave drawings.  Geologically, it’s a fascinating place.  Ground upheavals had changed the horizontal strata to vertical, exposing the various colours of sandstone as they had been deposited millions of years ago.  There was no one else around and the place was extremely peaceful.

 

 

Next, Kim found a desert rose.  It’s a plant, we’re certain it’s not of the rose genus and it doesn’t actually look much like a rose, but as a rarity it was a great find.  It looked so incongruous growing in the middle of an arid landscape.

 

 

On again and we paid our respects at Rev John Flynn’s grave.  John Flynn was the founder of Flying Doctor Service, of which we would learn more in a couple of days.

 

 

Finally we arrived at Alice Springs.  Neville Shute wrote the book ‘A Town Like Alice’ which I read years ago never thinking that one day I’d actually be in the place.  Alice Springs is very near to the centre of Australia.  It’s certainly the largest populated place for miles and it’s the furthest way from the sea we’ve ever been.  It’s grown a bit over the years and now has a population of around 28,000.  As we pulled into the caravan park, who should we meet up with but Wally and Carolyn (see previous blog entry).  Cause for celebrations.

Happily, Alice Springs also has a Land Rover agent from where I was able to source a new clutch master cylinder.  The rough roads had caused the old one to begin to leak and in true LR design, it dripped directly onto my left foot.  It turned out that Wally, who until now had claimed to be a retired dolphin trainer, was actually a skilled motor mechanic and helped me to fit the new part.  Actually, that’s not true.  I helped him!  Being somewhat overdue, I stripped out everything form the back of the LR and managed to remove most of the dust that had infiltrated everywhere.  It took hours.  I baked in the hot sun and stupidly got dehydrated.

Whether it was coincidence I don’t know, but next day I was suffering from a streamer of a cold.  However, with some liberal lubrication of the alcoholic variety, I recovered in a couple of days.  I’m continuing with the medication – just in case!

We’ve spent a very pleasant three days in Alice Springs.  Kim has recovered from shopping deficiency and we’ve had the chance to relax a bit and see some of the sights, which I’ll save for the next blog.

 

So to finish, here’s a couple of pictures of trees.  We’ve seen a lot of this phenomenon, trees growing from fallen trees.  There is a scientific name for it but I can’t find it on Google.  Apparently the growths are proper trees, not a branch of the fallen tree.  In time they will establish their own independent root system and the host tree will decay to nothing.

 

 

And here’s Kim sitting under a tree specially made for her.