Day Seventy One - September 15th, 2013

East Macdonnell Ranges, Alice Springs

We headed out to the East Macdonnell Ranges to take a look at the dramatic mountains springing out of the otherwise flat desert ground. It is a very sacred site to the indigenous people as it is believed to be the ground of the three caterpillars. We drove the 80 or so kilometres out to Trephina Gorge and took a hike to the top of the rim and back down into the water-less gorge. It was a lovely walk, but hot and the flies were out in full force, all over our face, crawling underneath our sun glasses and generally causing misery! I even managed to swallow one, and the taste was that of the smell we have become accustomed to when passing dead animals on the side of the road. Nice. We ended up running through the gorge as it was the only way to keep them away from us.

Next stop was the ghost gum tree - an almost luminous gum, startling white against the blue backdrop of the sky. Very unexpected amongst all the dust! We moved on to Jessie's Gap (where we think we saw a frilled neck lizard in the road!), but as we pulled into the car park, wasps swarmed in and around the car, and as I'm allergic and both epi-pens are now expired, decided it would be smart to move on, rather than risk being stung. We therefore drove to Emily's Gal and had a look at the aboriginal rock art depicting the caterpillars in the very windy gorge.

We headed back to the campsite around lunchtime where we ate and jumped into the freezing cold pool, where we stayed for the rest of the afternoon, escaping the sun.

It's a lovey campsite and we are happy to spend time here. Tomorrow we are hoping to get out to the West Macdonnells.