East MacDonnell Ranges

Decided to head straight off to East MacDonnells this morning after pancakes. Luuk managed to polish of 7, Sam 4, Maddy 3 and me 1 as they are huge. The record is 13 pancakes by a man and 7 for a female. I think Sam, Maddy and Ash's Opa Kees, in Holland, would love this Big 4 and would easily hold the record when he left. Pa Euge might also give him a run for his money.

Stopped at Emily and Jessie gaps and saw some aboriginal art of the three caterpillars which are dreamtime symbols for the Arrente tribes in this area. We also went to Corroboree rock which was quite impressive as it is fairly flat, vertical and made up of many different rock layers showing that it has been severely eroded over millions of years. Stated to be 800 million years old, similar to the other ranges in the area. There were some great pictures of bush tucker in the area so we took a few samples of what we found and then compared to the sign but still agree we would definitely starve if no Safeway or Aldi was nearby. We are still planning on doing a proper bush tucker tour, further north, into the wilderness, to learn from the experts. Although the landscape looks infertile you would be amazed at the nutritional, abundant food they can find. We are pretty sure we can find the wittchety grub tree but have yet tried to dig any up. Next we drove to Trephina Gorge where we have stopped for the night. Great campsites with campfire pits which is great as Luuk bought a camp oven to cook in over the fire and we have a casserole that needs to be heated. $7 a night and great, my sort of place.

Met our neighbours from Glen Eira. Their kids and ours are having a movie afternoon as it is freezing outside and threatening rain. They are 12 weeks on the road, without a TV, which I think is a great idea. Although we have a TV, I have to say we hardly find the time to use it. It is great to have neighbours with kids and also who have done this area and passed on what is great to do. We were planning on missing Ruby Gap as it was for high clearance 4WD but they showed us the amazing garnets they found and we were in. The kids loved noodling in Coober Pedi and Sam was already keen to go to Gemtree so we decided to give it a go. We planned ahead by taking plenty of water, food and blankets and let someone know before we go just in case we get stuck. Luuk is convinced that our Quattro is as good as a high clearance 4WD so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, at least once anyway. Signing off for today. Back to adventuring. We love it.