Campground 1: Ellery Creek Big Hole Campground
Facilities: Toilet, Non-potable Water, Gas BBQ.
Good stuff: Close to Ellery Creek Big hole and informative
‘dolomite walk’.
Not so good stuff: It gets filled up quite quickly.
Price: $5 per adult per night.
Campground 2: Woodlands
Campground.
Facilities: Toilet, Fire pit, Picnic Benches, Gas BBQ.
Good stuff: The last campsite on the western side of the
national park.
Not so good stuff: Very rocky ground and weird shaped
campgrounds segregating by bollards…
Price: $5 per adult.
Campground 3: Palm Valley Campground.
Facilities: Toilet, Showers, Non-potable water, Fire pit,
Picnic Benches, Gas BBQ.
Good stuff: Great facilities with lovely start and finishes
to the day as the sun lights up the red sandstone hills.
Not so good stuff: Again unlucky for us, loud people ruining
the serenity…
Price: $6.60 per adult.
West MacDonnell NP is handily
just a short drive from Alice Springs. Many travellers along the way had said
that it was worth a visit so we did just that.
It is a stunning place with some amazing geology on show. For a structural geology fix head to Ormiston Gorge.
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| The linear grooves are called slickensides showing the movement of the thrust that had 2km of displacement! |
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| And here is a smaller scale fault by some water that you definitely wouldn't want to swim in. |
For colourful geology- the ochre pits is for you.
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| Further down the road there is a lookout after the Ochre pits. |
Whereas if you want more culture Roma Gorge is a very rewarding place. It isn’t as well known and the track is 4WD only so it puts people off. The trip treats you to some petroglyphs and is our pick of the park.
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| Ityre, a male moon spirit, depicted with a shinning halo of light throwing his boomerang off to the right |
After we headed to westwards to
Tyler’s Lookout in West MacDonnell NP, you will be treated with grassy rolling
hills but what is that mountain in the distance (but not really a mountain more
of a hill)? THE REMAINS OF A COMET IMPACT!!! We drove to Gosse Bluff and walked
around a section of the remnant sandstone impact circle. Technically it isn’t
the crater as that was eroded away long ago. The rock that is currently exposed
is from the impact directly under the comet (that was turned vertically from
the force) rather than the original crater that you would have seen on the
surface.
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| Margaret has her nose pointing to the red sandstone crater in the distance to the left... |
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| ...and here it is up close on the other side of the crater. |
Our final stop off on the loop
was Palm Valley in Finke Gorge NP. Luckily for us the road to the campground
was pleasantly smooth after following the grader in. The drive to the Palm
Valley walks was a rocky affair with a tiny bit of rock scrambling and low
range is your friend for the last few 100 metres into the car park. We did the
5km walk that is perfect if you are looking for a bit of piece and quiet.
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| The red cabbage palms are only found in this valley and looked like normal green palms to us... |
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| ...but then we saw the juvenile RED cabbage palms! |
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| If there was any rain it would make it a slippery experience on the smooth sandstone. |
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| Sunset lights up the cliffs at Palm Valley campsite |
However, again we were treated
with unsightly fellow campers chatting loud and music on until at least
midnight. At 11pm we dug the earplugs out of the car to try and get some
shuteye. Camping bliss yet again…
Shame about the thoughtless morons (again!), they obviously want a quiet spot too then the alcohol kicks in......! Don't know much about rocks but very interesting & pretty pictures. Okay RED cabbage palms must be named after their juvenile stage as they 1- don't look red as adults 2- don't look much like cabbages! Stay safe. x
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