We called into Papunya to look at the Art Gallery. Thought it may be enough on the tourist route to be open on a Sunday. Apparently, we are not that civilised yet.
Eighteen kilometres east of Papunya we turned off the Kintore Road and headed south to link up with the Larapinta Drive and the West MacDonnell Ranges. Surprising this road is very corrugated and there's lots of dust all made up for with the beautiful mountains in the distance, including Haasts Bluff - light blue in colour and then mauve as we got closer. Plenty of spinifex, so pretty as little green blobs on the mountainside.
Onto the Larapinta Trail and our first stop is Redbank Gorge (known in Western Arrernte language as Yarretyeke (Yuh-ret-CHUCKA). Redbank Gorge (and Mount Sonda in the distance) are sacred sites for Western Arrernte Aboriginal people. And just like Mount Sonder, the Gorge’s Dreaming Story is connected to the Euro (small kangaroo) ancestor who travels through the area. The walk to the gorge is a lovely one hour walk up Redbank Creek to the semi-permanent waterhole at the gorge. Beautiful gums - ghost gums I believe as well as River Red Gums and lots of Zebra Finches. They look a little different to those we saw a few days ago. Much fluffier (perhaps its got something to do with it being cooler here in the Gorge country than it was in the west.
Next stop before visiting the Glen Helen Resort was the lookout for Mount Sonder (Rwetyepme), named by Explorer, Ernest Giles in honour of German botanist Dr Otto Wilhelm Sonder. At 1,380m Mt Sonder is one of the highest peaks of the West MacDonnells and the fourth highest peak in the Northern Territory. Mount Zeil (27 kilometres to the west) is the highest at 1,531 metres, The lookout is a lovely spot with commanding views of the Finke River, the MacDonnell Ranges, with Mt Sonder dominating the skyline. The rock formations in the area are just amazing.
Just across the road is the Glen Helen Resort. The term ‘resort’ is somewhat loosely used as Glen Helen was formally a cattle station, which means that the heritage-listed buildings are not really typical resort architecture! Rustic is a much better word – but even so, it's a nice spot providing accommodation, fuel, meals, camping etc. We dropped in for an ice-cream. Out the back, there are great views of the Glen Helen Gorge, a picturesque waterhole between a break in the ranges.
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| Redbank Gorge |
Camp tonight is not far away at 'Two Mile' Two Mile is a long series of tracks along the banks and in the dry channels of the Finke River. There are often long pools to camp beside as well. Unfortunately, these were all 'taken' but we set up on a pleasant spot in the bed of the river. Lots of rocks - a nice change from red dirt. The Finke is called the world’s oldest river as geologists tell us that some parts of it have followed the same course for at least 300-400 million years. In Arrarnte, it's called lhere pirnte (creek salty – or salty creek/river) due to the salty pools which are left as the river dries up after a flow.
Washed some undies to keep us going until Alice Springs in a couple of days.
Another lovely fire!
