East Macdonnell Ranges

25/08/2018

We have spent the last 4 days camping at Trephina Gorge which is in the East Macdonnell ranges. There is a camp ground in the national park which provides a good drop toilet and drinking water and only costs $3.30 p/p, p/n.

Over the 4 nights that we spent here we met many different people that are travelling like us and we enjoyed many late nights around the fire. It was a whole lot of fun with a great group of new friends.

The gorges in this region are spectacular we managed to do heaps of walks exploring the surroundings, our favorite was the “chain of ponds walk” from John Hayes Rockhole campground. We didn’t see any other wildlife other than birds, which was surprising, we thought Wallabies and Kangaroos would have been plentiful.

The visit to Arltunga was interesting which explored the failed gold mine, old buildings and just how tough it was for the early settlers of the region, apparently Arltunga was the fist township in Central Australia, now it’s an abandoned ghost town, but well preserved for tourists.

On Saturday as we were leaving the gorge and heading back into Alice Springs, we came across a few hundred bikes riding in a pack on their way to Ross river for the annual “Fishs Run” https://www.facebook.com/FishsRun/ then on Sunday in Alice, we managed to join them for the last part of the weekend where they ride through the front door of Bojangles Pub and ride their bikes through the bar and out the back door. Awesome! Rachel also won a raffle prize, which is full of Avon moisturising products, we will probably both use them as our skin is really dry from all the dust and dry air out here. It’s weird, dust is becoming normal, grass is an oasis.

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