Australia – Lorna On The Loose

Touchdown at Alice Springs airport not only gave us the novelty of an Immigration-like State border check-in but provided an eye widening and sobering reminder of the state of travel in Covid Times with 140 aircraft from all over the globe languishing in the desert air awaiting the call back to duty.

**Tail end of the parking lot from the tarmac at Alice Springs airport**

October pretty much tips you past the main tourist season for a Central Australian trip. A southern hemisphere autumn or winter is the optimal timing to beat the fierce summer heat. The last-minute cancellation (snap Covid lockdown in my State) of the fully planned August trip left us with just one window of opportunity. With a very serious and painful case of travel withdrawal symptoms literally gnawing away at my insides, naturally I took the only remaining window of availability.

Uluru is top of the list for most people, and we were no different, but I had a few other important destinations on my agenda. And just a short couple of weeks to jam it all in. There was a lot of driving ahead of us.

**Straight. Flat. Long. That is the hallmark of Northern Territory roads. This is the road into Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) from Yulara (Ayers Rock Resort) – only 50 kms**. **A chilly early morning start.**

With the car and the accommodation sorted, the priority after an early flight was to get a decent brunch – Page 27 Cafe in the Fan Arcade hit the mark. Then it was time to organise an esky (cool box) for the long road trips, along with supplies. Couldn’t go past Afghan Traders as the first port of call for our fresh food and treats.

The West McDonnell Ranges road trip accessible for a 2WD vehicle is about 135 kms one way and is packed with walks, scenic spots and more things to do than is possible in just one day. The nostalgia part of this day for me was to revisit Glen Helen, just past Ormiston Gorge. Not a lot to see perhaps for the average day tripper but I enjoyed fighting my way through 2 metre high reeds on sometimes soggy ground till I got to the water. We later met the Rangers who were on their way to make it all a bit more accessible.

Ormiston Gorge provided the first decent walk of the trip. Or more correctly, the first decent Climb of the trip. Are we nearly there? Always another corner.

**Cycads find their spot on the rock face**

We make a stop at the Ochre pits

Plenty to see in Alice itself. Olive Pink Botanic Gardens and Desert Park are highlights but the Araluen Art Centre is the gem. We are so lucky to see Desert Mob Retrospective and the Hermannsburg pots on display are mind blowing.

Sublime (Kulyuru by Lennard Walker). And then there is the bucking bronco.

Yulara Resort is one of the most expensive places to stay in Australia. But that’s it if you want to spend time at Uluru (Ayers Rock). There are a range of options and we have a 2 bedroom apartment. Not bad.

The long drive from Alice is broken by the conveniently located halfway stop of Erldunda Roadhouse. The tucker here exceeded the usual standard of roadhouse fare and we enjoyed it driving in and out of the Rock.

The ride around the Rock calls for a very early start to beat the heat. It’s about 15 kms all up counting the cycle in and out from the bicycle hire spot. We were the first in so got the pick of the cycles. I still seemed to get an exceptionally hard saddle and as a non cyclist I had a daily reminder of that ride for quite some time!

**Spectacular early morning drive from Yulara to Uluru** **to do the cycle around the Rock**

**Then Uluru appears for yet another magical view as the sun rises**

Early morning start but it soon warms up

Flat all the way, but a little tricky in a couple of spots. Shaded areas, sacred sites (photography forbidden), opportunities to get very close, places to meditate quietly and waterholes that fill when the rains cascade down the Rock. The cycle or the walk around the Rock is pretty special. A drive around is possible for the less mobile with the road just a further distance away. The Ranger guided Mala walk the day before certainly enhanced our experience.

Kata Tjuta offers great walks – Walpa Gorge and the very aptly named Valley of the Winds were the ones we took.

I’ve been to Uluru and Alice Springs on several occasions but only to Palm Valley once in the 70’s. So that became the second and main nostalgia goal of this trip. It so nearly didn’t happen. The season finishes at the end of September and with Covid amplifying the lack of tourists, our October dates meant there was only one possible day and even then it was only on at the very last minute. It had to be a tour as it is 4WD only. And boy, was it ever 4WD compulsory!! The roughest drive in towards the end when only an experienced driver can make it. But is was worth every rock clambering moment.

Palm Valley is in the Finke Gorge National Park and the ancient red cliffs tower over thousands of palms and cycads, remnants from millions of years ago. It was as wonderful as I remembered. Another great walk with a climb but not as arduous as Valley of the Winds.

The floor of Palm Valley

That day ended eventfully. Flat tyre far enough out of Alice to mean there was no phone coverage. The situation deteriorated – lack of correct tyre changing equipment! Even worse, the car collapses onto the rim! We were in for the long haul. Luckily for us, NT Rangers came to the rescue. A wind and rain storm wild and strong enough to blow down a tree nearby did nothing to deter our rescuers from acieving success in their mission.

**Soaking wet but smiles all round** **after a job well done. Territory Rangers rock**

Quite a few things on the itinerary missed the cut but always better to have too many choices than too few. More to see next time and we had definitely given it our best shot with a cracking non stop pace for the couple of weeks we had.

Grassy tufts on the Rock, Hermannsburg, storyteller ever so casually makes the red dirt a vivid canvas for waterholes and just as casually sweeps them away

So much more to see in the Northern Territory. Our trip is just a sampler of what the Centre has to offer. Then there is Kakadu and everything else along the track!

Watching the Field of Lights slowly come to life as evening falls. Uluru is a spectacular backdrop. An exceptionally freezing night followed for a birthday celebration Dinner under the desert Stars. Five layers and a beanie barely did it!

“Imagine you are here in a flash flood. Water swirls violently in the Amphitheatre like a washing machine pushing everything before it….” Just as I read these words on the explanatory sign, plump drops of rain strike me. Others impel like random bullets in to the thin layer of bulldust I am standing in. I look up at the series of vertical steel ladders with quite narrow steps that we will need to ascend to reach the Amphitheatre and more importantly, will later need to descend backwards. The image of the flash flood instantly becomes more vivid than the sign writer could ever have hoped for.

Common sense prevails. A flash flood in the next 20 minutes or so is not going to happen, but for one brief moment the visual was enhanced by the sudden rain into a moment of intensity.

Carnarvon Gorge in central western Queensland can claim to be one of the great National Parks of Australia. Even though it is practically in my backyard, this will be my first trip and another great expedition ticked off. A straight through drive from my house takes about the same time as a flight from Brisbane to Honolulu, or Sydney to Hong Kong. Almost anywhere you want to go from here is an expedition.

General store Injune — Everything you need in a country town

20171007_112749 — Coffee break at the truck stop

20171007_113137 — It really is a truck stop

20171007_111418 — Bushfires and flooding plains – something for everyone

20171007_142405 — The ants are big out here

Time is on our side this trip so we make it a leisurely drive, enjoying a few of the sights with an overnight stop at Springsure. We hit Rolleston, a small township of maybe 40 houses, which is where we turn off the highway. It’s Sunday afternoon and the place is deserted. Glad we fuelled up earlier as the 24 hour servo is locked up as well. Was there anything else we should have got before we entered the National Park? Too late now; I’m not driving back over 70kms to Springsure unlike the unfortunate people we met later who were counting on that place as a fuel stop.

The final drive in - Just need to dodge the cattle — The final drive in; just need to dodge the cattle

Home for 3 nights - En suite located conveniently in the adjacent corrugated iron tank — Glamping for 3 nights – En suite conveniently located in the corrugated iron tank conversion

Whether you are a pitch a tent type, or a full modern luxury style of traveller, Carnarvon Gorge seems to have something for everyone. We opt for a point in the middle which is a tent on a platform complete with fly sheet and best of all, en suite facilities. That rather small tin tank on the right of the platform houses a perfectly adequate shower, with plenty of hot water, and toilet.

The tent can sleep 5 people and apart from the beds, it holds a small fridge, a pedestal fan, a handy hat stand along with a broom and dustpan. All you need really! The fan was used on the rare occasions we were inside during the day.

Timing can be everything when you travel and sometimes you hit the sweet spot. The week before, some visitors chose to leave as the heat was unbearable at over 40 degrees Celsius. In the interim, there had been a couple of good storms and we arrived to hot days for sure, but everything was greened up, water was running and nights were comfortable with just a light bed cover and the windows and doors rolled up to let the cool air flow through the bug mesh.

20171008_155018 — You don’t have to move far to meet the first locals

Our main aim at Carnarvon was to explore by hiking around, but what was so good about this place was that there was plenty to see and do for less mobile visitors. Kangaroos and wallabies everywhere, betong at night, active platypus in the creek, plenty of bird life and a bat colony – not totally welcome having relocated their roosting place a little too close by.

We were told there was a colony of 100,000 bats resident nearby. I assumed this was a slight exaggeration but after watching (and hearing) them on the move, I don’t doubt the numbers. It was like watching a continuous wave flowing on and on through the trees.

Plenty to entertain even if you choose not to hike the trails

There are more than a dozen designated walks, some as short as under a kilometre and others around the 20 km mark return, though a lot longer if you walk in and out of each of the highlights along the way.

20171010_132053_1513990933825_resized — The trails are not difficult

20171010_133028_1513990931746_resized — Though some are less well-formed than others

20171009_085852_1513991087868_resized — The trick with the many rock hopping crossings is just to keep moving

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — A hot walk, but plenty of interesting places to cool off

New visitors rolled in every day to hear the valuable information sessions, mingle in the happy hour or enjoy the roast evening meal. Large camp kitchens with bbq facilities are located around the facility. The main danger of the camp kitchen area is the exceptionally gifted abilities of the kookaburras to steal food right off your fork. After surviving two evenings maintaining a watchful eye, I was caught out on the last night. I saw, heard or felt nothing apart from a slight brushing of wing feathers on my face as a vigilant kookaburra stole the last mouthful right off my poised fork. All we could do was watch as the bird “killed” the catch on the adjacent grass. That is one lethal beak.

Beautiful in the wild

But beware when eating a sausage!

The sound of someone walking behind the tent in the middle of the dark night. A growling sound, neither a dog nor a possum. Another growl and I am wide awake. We have no really dangerous wild animals in Australia, apart from the odd venomous snakes and spiders so this was a wild animal sound uncommonly heard.

But I had once heard similar growling walking around one of the lovely bush tracks of Mt Majura in Canberra. There was a lot more intense growling on that occasion as two full-grown kangaroos fought it out in the late afternoon. Here, after only two growls and lots of silence I finally heard the definite thump, thump of a roo bounding away. The disturbed ground outside the tent in the morning provided evidence of the altercation during the night.

Could this have been one of big fellas during the night?

Hidden in the rugged ranges of Queensland’s central highlands, Carnarvon Gorge features towering sandstone cliffs, vibrantly coloured side gorges, diverse flora and fauna and Aboriginal rock art. This promo somehow seems understated and lacking in the drama and exhiliration after the real experience. Absolutely worth the effort of getting there!