Decision made ! This morning we set off into the West MacDonnell Ranges for a relatively short and relaxed drive to Glen Helen Gorge where we’ll stay the night.
No navigation problems this morning as we’ve now just about figured out where everything is in Alice Springs so straight to the fuel station to top up and then straight out on the Larapinta Drive.
Our first diversion off the road took us to Simpsons Gap, initially this seemed like “yet another gorge” but on the way back we spotted some of the rare Black Footed Rock Wallabies in the rocks on the other side of the gorge to us. We watched them for a while before setting off again.
We then turned onto Namatjira Drive towards Glen Helen, following the Red Centre Way.

Black Footed Wallaby

There are a series of gorges off the road but we only stopped at a couple of places along the way as we’re starting to get a bit “gorged out”. The Ochre Pits were an interesting diversion as it’s an area of cliffs where the Aboriginals dig out ochre. At these cliffs there are white, yellow, purple and ochres and they’re still being dug today although not when we were there.
Ormiston Gorge had the major attraction of a small cafe serving decent coffee including iced coffee which was very nice, being composed of decent espresso coffee, ice, ice cream, honey, milk and chocolate sprinkled on top.
Our final stop was at Glen Helen Gorge which is another gorge… The camp site at the gorge is pretty good with the bonus of a bar and restaurant so we booked in for the night.

Glen Helen Gorge

No phone or internet access here so this will have to be posted as and when – probably when we get near Uluru unless we can use the WiFi at the bar here without paying through the nose for it. We’ve bought our permit for tomorrow to cross the Aboriginal lands on the Mereenie Loop down to Kings Canyon. The staff at Glen Helen say the road is mostly in good condition and most of it can be covered at 60kph or more so we should arrive at Kings Canyon early in the afternoon. We’ll stay overnight at Kings Canyon before heading to Uluru where we’ll stay for two nights we think.