Stonkered by a right royal canyon

Kings Canyon is spectacular. Very spectacular. One group of visitors was discussing what word you could use when you've run out of superlatives, like 'amazing', 'awesome', 'superb', 'incredible'. I suggested 'stonkering', having heard another group earlier, talking about having being stonkered - maybe in a different context, but never mind.

So 'stonkering' it is when it's as spectacular as this. I can honestly say it was the most scenic bushwalk I've ever done anywhere. It's 6km around the rim, and takes anything from 2 hours to all day, depending on just how stonkered you are and how much time you want to enjoy it for. 

Even Fenella enjoyed every minute of the walk. There are amazing sheer drops, incredible dome-shaped rock formations, all kinds of fabulous colours and shapes. And half way around, there's a Lost City and a Garden of Eden. In the latter we lunched and watched birds like these spinifex pigeons drinking from the flowing creek.

We stayed two nights at the Kings Canyon Resort, which is well appointed and well run, though expensive. In the evenings we were entertained by a folksy, family friendly barnyard performance by a duo called The Roadies. They organised children's games and music bands, and they had everyone singing along to songs from the 60s and 70s, and of course 'Give me a home among the gum trees' and 'Waltzing Matilda'. Perfect stuff for the holiday crowds from all over the world.

Earlier in the evening we'd join the throng to watch and photograph the sunset on the escarpment of the George Gill Range.

Kings Canyon is within the Watarrka National Park, about 400km south west of Alice Springs. We were on our way to Uluru/Katajuta, a few hours drive further out.

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A time for Alice

Alice Springs was the name of a waterhole not far from the old Telegraph Station which saw the start of European settlement in the area. The Telegraph Station was built in 1872 to relay messages between Darwin and Adelaide, and once it came, the lives of the local indigenous population changed forever.

Alice Springs is a sad town. Bands of local indigenous people move around the town during the day, and at night camp in the dry Todd River bed. Unlike other Aboriginal settlements that we'd come across, alcohol is not banned in Alice Springs, and neither is gambling. Suburban Alice Springs is characterised by semi-gated communities and high fences.  It's not a pretty town.

We stayed in Lasseters hotel and casino and observed large numbers of the town's poor pouring whatever was left of their pensions into the hotel's poker machines.

We couldn't help but be reminded of Redgum's lyrics in their 1981 song, "The Last Frontier": A stark and blistered Alice Springs and a river runs with shame. And you wipe the sheets of bull dust from your eyes....Signs and high wire fences hold the land where I belong.*  These lines were written by John Schumann a while ago but still seem current. It might take another 30 years, but let's hope that Alice's time will come and we'll see a change for the better.

*www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzni4ioSWrM

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Quite an impact

I wasn't actually aware either of the Gosse Bluff comet impact crater, or the Henbury meteorite craters before our trip, but we serendipitously stumbled upon both.

Gosse Bluff is the 5km diameter remnant of the central cone of a giant 22km crater that's since been eroded. It is believed to have been formed 140 million years ago when a 500m diameter comet hit. It's just off Namatjira Drive, 175km west of Alice Springs. We drove right inside and surveyed the scene.

Then, next day just off Ernest Giles Rd, a similar distance from Alice Springs but to the south west of it, lo and behold, the Henbury meteorite craters. 

These are only 4000 years old, and range in size up to 180m diameter and 15m deep. We walked around and inside some, and I looked up to see if any more were coming!

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Gaps, gorges & chasms - Part 6: Ormiston, Serpentine, & Redbank gorges

Gaps, gorges & chasms - Part 5: Glen Helen resort & gorge

The main accommodation option along the West MacDonnell range, apart from camping, is the Glen Helen resort, where there's a range of options including the motel (sort of) rooms. Somewhat overpriced, and the service wonderfully Fawlty Towersish, it's run by well meaning backpackers.

The view outside our window was very very spectacular, with a terrific bright red sunset on the escarpment, and later, fabulously clear dark starry skies (more on this in a later post).

We walked across the paddocks on our first morning there, and checked out the Glen Helen Gorge, prior to heading off for a days outing to - you guessed it - two more gorges!

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Gaps, gorges & chasms - Part 4: Ellery Big Hole

 Our next gap was Ellery Big Hole. If it wasn't midwinter, and the water wasn't at a single figure temperature, it would make a very fine swimming hole indeed. Save that for the next time perhaps. But it was another very pleasant place to spend some time, with a graceful bird of prey soaring and swooping above us.

On the news yesterday was the big handover of the West Macdonnell National Park to the traditional owners. It took place at Simpsons Gap and was attended by indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin. That would have been quite something to stumble on.

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Gaps, gorges & chasms - Part 3: Standley Chasm

Next stop on our tour of the West MacDonnells was Standley Chasm, with the 'ch' in chasm pronounced disconcertingly by many like the 'ch' in chap, rather than the 'ch' in charisma. Not sure what that's about.

I'd been there 38 years ago, on my fabled $49 all inclusive two day bus tour from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock and back, and remembered well the terrific light show put on every day at noon precisely, when the rays of the sun shine directly into the narrow vertical gap.

It didn't let us down, and the throngs who comprised the day's 'Standley Chasm ensemble' duly assembled and watched in awe.

We'd arrived a little early, so took the opportunity to walk a bit of the Larapinta Trail, the 223km walking track from Mt Sonder to Alice Springs. At this point it goes up and over the range, and you can sit up there and look down on the narrow gap below.

I was as ever curious to see how much the place had changed since 1974, so dug out my slide from back then. Uncannily, even the trees seem identical, and haven't grown perceptably. The pilgrims had longer hair in those days and slightly different fashions maybe. Compare the two pics.

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Gaps, gorges & chasms - Part 2: Simpsons Gap

Our first stop on the westward journey from Alice Springs was another of the West MacDonnell's gaps: Simpsons Gap. 

You do in fact start to get them a bit muddled together in your head, so many of these spectacular scenic spots are there. But they never pale. They're all spectacular indeed. Simpsons Gap is a little like Emily Gap, but with a lot more water, and the photo opportunities are many.

Simpson, who also has a desert named after him of course, was one of the chaps who helped organise the surveyors' expedition to set up the overland telegraph line, that brought Alice Springs into being as a European settlement.

Other names who crop up a lot are Sturt, Stuart, and Todd. Sturt and Stuart were both explorers, and Todd was the Superintendent of Telegraphs. Alice was Todd's wife.

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Gaps, gorges & chasms - Part 1: Emily & Jessie

The MacDonnell Ranges stretch east and west from Alice Springs for hundreds of kilometres. They are capped by giant 'caterpillars', rocky ridges along the top, and there are gaps, chasms, gorges, and a 'big hole' that the dreamtime caterpillars had to cross over. 

Just south of Alice is Heavitree Gap, where the Todd River passes through, as well as the Stuart Highway and Ghan railway, and a few kilometres out along the East MacDonnells are the picturesque Emily and Jessie Gaps. These were our first stops in our MacDonnell Range explorations.

In Emily Gap are some aboriginal paintings, still maintained after thousands of years, representing the caterpillars.

We thought the scenery was pretty stunning, but it turned out to be just a mild foretaste of what was to come in our recent travels to the Red Centre.

Who were Emily and Jessie? Apparently nobody quite knows.

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Descent into terror (and the Nepean Belle)

How to get down from here? How to get to our Nepean River lunch spot?

With a degree of abject terror in some cases,

some careful and considerate guidance,

and the odd primal scream.

There, that wasn't so bad, and here comes the Nepean Belle herself!

All in a days' work for the virtuouso walk leaders of the All Nations Bushwalkers! Thanks for another great day out (to Nepean Gorge, via Mulgoa Trig, Blue Mountains National Park).

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