Well after putting in some mammoth hours at the hospital working over the last few weeks we decided to head out for the day and have some sight seeing. We packed a picnic lunch and headed out the East MacDonald Ranges. Just out on the Ross Highway, not far at all, we arrived at our first stop, Emily Gap. Emily Gap is the first of many sacred aboriginal sites along the East MacDonald Ranges and form the start of the 'caterpillar' which is part of the dreamtime story. Antherrke, the Arrernte name for Emily Gap, is part of the storyline for the Three Caterpillars; Yeperenye, Ntyarlke and Utnerrengatye ancestors for the Alice Springs area. Arrernte people conceived in Alice Springs consider themselves direct descendants of these caterpillar ancestors. We walked down in the dried up creek bed to the gorge where on the cliff face there was aboriginal art depicting the caterpillar story. Was awesome to see and an interesting story. We headed down the road to Jessie's Gap where we were greeted with another dry gorge and spectacular cliff faces with more dreamtime artwork. We felt like these tiny ants amongst this natural beauty, spectacular.
Next stop was Corroboree Rock, a little bit up the road and we had to turn off and drive up this dirt track before arriving at this huge rock formation in the middle of nowhere. Marty and the girls decided that they didn't want to do the short walk around the rock, so off l went, by myself. OMG!!! It was the most peaceful walk l reckon l have done on this trip. No kids whinging or sooking, was able to read the signs without loosing concentration, it was brilliant!! The walk took me around 15 mins and l saw some beautiful bush desert flowers along the way. The real significance of the rocky outcrop to the Eastern Arrernte people is not well known. Corroboree Rock was probably not a corroboree site, but a site where men carried out important ceremonial activities. It began to be formed some 800 million years ago when a shallow, salty sea laid down a fine silt. Algae grew over this silt and shaped itself into mounds that solidified into rock over millions of years. It was quite fascinating and the rock itself was quite majestic. Apparently the perentie goanna hangs out here a bit and l was hoping to see one just so l could show Marty and the girls what they missed out on, but unfortunately there weren't any around that l could see. After l got back to the car we made our way further up the dirt track to the John Hayes rock hole were we had the famous peanut butter sandwich picnic. Since our bellies were full we started our 30 minute return walk to the lookout. Of course, Meg wasn't in the mood for another walk and l wasn't in the mood for Meg not being in the mood!! Make sense? Thought so.....lol Anyway, back to the story. Boo and l headed off in front up the rocky stair climb whilst Marty and sooky Meg slowly made their way up behind us. The lookout was amazing. Could see awesome cliff faces and desert bush. After soaking up the glorious views we headed back down to the car.
Wasn't far up the road and we arrived at Trephina Gorge. Again, we headed off for our walk and this time the girls weren't whinging. Marty was a little nervous as we got to the top and were walking along a cliff face with no rails and all the girls wanted to do was look down to the ground!! After some stern words they got the message to stay back. Meg and Boo loved hearing the echoes from then yelling out "koowee!" and at first it was cute, then after 10 minutes it became plain annoying...lol. The walk along the gorge was awesome. The walk was also interesting with it going steep, then along cliffs then doing a bit of rock climbing. The girls actually were enjoying themselves, totally amazing!! Anyway we kept following our orange arrows along the gorge which then lead us down to the bottom of the gorge and then back up to the other side. This walk was becoming more amazing as we kept going. Whilst getting up the other side was a tad strenuous we took a breather and drank the last of our water (we never seem to carry enough water with us) and took a few pics then headed off again. The orange arrows then took us through some thick green long grass, l shat myself that l was going to come across a snake or two. The grassy path then took us to the dried up bed of the gorge. If we thought the gorge cliffs were huge whilst on top, we definitely felt like ants down the bottom of it. There was a few areas that had some shallow water around and the girls only had one idea in mind, do the shoes came off quickly. Whilst the girls had fun splashing in the water, Marty and l took in the picturesque surrounds as we made our way up the gorge back to the carpark. If ever on Alice Springs, the East MacDonald Ranges are a must do and they never get the praise they deserve due to the West dominating the tourist scene.
After getting back to the car it was time to go find the second half of our adventure. We were chasing some 4WD tracks further up the road. We arrived at the Arltunga historical reserve and got out to check out the jokers mine, but after seeing the huge hill that we had to climb to get there we opted to just check out the historical building remains around the area. As Boo and l took the lead we were chatting whilst getting close to this building ruin when something got startled and moving just a few feet in front of us. I grabbed Boo and drew her close s***ting myself that it was a snake!! I must have yelped as Marty was asking what was wrong. Then l saw what it was, a bloody huge long perentie goanna!!! I had nearly stood on it for Christs sake!!! Once we all realized it wasn't a snake we stood amazed to be out here in the bush with this huge bloody goanna. They look do funny when they walk. Apparently they can be quite aggressive of felt threatened so l made sure the girls didn't get too close. After watching it disappear into the scrub we headed back to the car. We then headed up the dirt track to the Cattle water pass road turn off only to find it was bloody closed!! Marty was very disappointed, and the only way home was this boring 100km dirt track driving into to sun all the way back to Alice. It was getting late and the option of turning around and going back the way we came didn't look like a good one, do we drove for what felt like forever, getting blinded by the sun all the way. We finally arrived back in Alice Springs at 7pm, tired and hungry. So Maccas it was, we pulled in and filled up then headed back to the caravan park. All a bit washed out, but was a fantastic day all the same!! It was great to get out and see some sights rather than just working all the time......
Bell Xxx