West MacDonnell Ranges

Just after I posted last night, an almighty dust storm blew up out of nowhere.  All of a sudden the winds were really crazy so we dashed outside to put down the caravan awning before it got torn off.  As we were out there fighting against the gale, it began to pour with rain!  It was fun and not at all unwelcome as the temperature still hovered at around 36 degrees.  Unfortunately it was short lived, however, and didn't do much more than settle the dust and muddy-up the car!

We didn't rush into anything this morning.  In fact, we couldn't really decide what we wanted to do next.  After looking at the weather forecast, however, we thought it might be best to head out to the MacDonnell Ranges.  Even though the temperature was to be in the high 30s, it was forecast to be overcast.  This was going to be the best we could hope for when heading back to bush camping with no power, water etc.

Once we were all packed up we headed into the Visitor Centre in town.    Glad we did.  The service and advice we received from the staff was the best yet!  We came away armed with lots of great information on camping and walking in the Tjoritja/West MacDonnell National Park, Watarrka National Park and the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.

We stopped for a coffee, some free Wifi and giant frozen spiders at Maccas.

 

We left Maccas in Alice Springs and headed for another Maccas - the MacDonnell Ranges.  The Ranges stretch over 640 kms and are estimated to be 340 million years old.  They provide a picturesque backdrop to the town of Alice Springs and are affectionately known to locals as the East Macs and the West Macs. 

We headed west.  Our first stop was Simpsons Gap, just 25 kms from Alice Springs.  It was the perfect place for our picnic lunch.

From the picnic area there was a short walk to The Gap

 

Not much water in the creek bed!

 

It was a pretty walk and the colours of the rock were stunning.
 

Standard daily rock hopping activities

 

There is a colony of endangered black footed rock wallabies that live at the Gap, but we didn't see any.  We did see some of these really cool long nosed dragon lizards.

 



Our next stop was our campsite at Ellery Creek Big Hole, one of the largest permanent water holes in the region.  Nestled in the gap formed by Ellery Creek as it passes through the Ranges, it was the perfect spot to base ourselves while we explored the West Macs.

The campsite was quiet and cool when we arrived.  It was mid afternoon and the temperature gauge was showing 28 degrees.  We couldn't believe our luck.  The boys got stuck into their Lego while we made friends with neighbouring campers Rodney (from Queensland) and Debbie (from Victoria). 

 

We shared a few drinks and travelling yarns.  We compared rock collections.  We had opals, they had rubies!  It was later in the evening when it came up in conversation that NT and SA are on different time zones (apparently SA has daylight saving but NT doesn’t).  So for the past 36 hours we’d been thinking it was an hour later than it actually was!  No wonder town looked pretty quiet this morning when we arrived at what we thought was 9.30am but was actually 8.30am!!

 

We enjoyed a bush BBQ watching the colour changes on a beautiful cool evening in central Australia.  Unfortunately, the cool breeze disappeared completely about bed time, making for a hot night in the van.