Our night in the creek bed leading to Roma Gorge was an example of true quiet. We heard no sounds during the night - not a bird, not a dingo, not a cow. We could have been a thousand kilometres from the nearest life.

Namatjira Road is littered with gorges and canyons, splits in the backbone of the West MacDonnell Ranges. All are part of the Larapinta Trail, a long trek across the West MacDonnells starting in Alice Springs now so popular with hikers. Our first stop was Redbank Gorge. Here, despite this being part of the tourist route, we walked to and from the gorge alone. The only way there is via the dry creek bed, a boulder-strewn swathe with dangerous potential to twist or break ankles. Walking is not quite the right word for the journey - more like dancing and leaping from boulder to boulder trying to pick the easiest path as you go.

But the trip is worthwhile and the lovely gorge at the end is reflected in the deep rockpool cutting access to the inner depths of the narrow canyon.

Next was Ormiston Gorge with more people, a shop and a crowded National Park campground. We walked a short trail, Ghost Gum walk, which took us up the valley along a high track and returned along the creek bed - the boulders to traverse here were, if anything, harder than those at Redbank. We then tackled part of the Ormiston Pound Walk some of which matches the Larapinta Trail, to a high, precariously perched lookout at the top of a mountain that formed part of the circular chain of peaks with views over the Pound.

A second opportunity to wild camp: a small sign pointed to the Finke River. We parked ourselves on the banks of one of the billabongs remaining in the river now that it is not actually flowing. I spotted a pelican, small pied cormorants, large black cormorants, white cattle egrets, grey herons, moorhens and ducks. In the trees around were peregrine falcons, noisy black cockatoos, pink and grey galahs and mulga parrots. A dingo prowled around in full daylight. A clear night gave us the Milky Way in all its glory and a roaring fire kept us warm till bedtime.

Another day, another gorge. Serpentine Gorge was thankfully an easy flat walk along a dirt track. Again the gorge at the end was stunning. Every gorge has been different - certainly not a case of 'seen one, seen them all'. A pool blocked access up the valley again and so we moved on up the road to the Ochre Pits, a site of considerable mining and trading of coloured ochres by the tribes of the region in days gone by. The strata of soft mudstone-like rocks have been turned to almost vertical by huge geological forces in eons past. Each stratum consisted of a different colour: shades of earth reds, maroons, yellows, golds, whites, purples. The vertical cliff faces peel back to reveal the layers underneath.

As we moved closer to Alice Springs, we decided that our main desire was to have a good, long, hot shower -it's been 5 days since we last had a shower. It has been even longer (7 days) since our phones have registered any reception at all. Nor have we had anything but some crackly short-wave Radio Australia. We have been truly cut off from the world and it brings home to us just how unimportant the petty, self-absorbed antics of politicians and power-brokers are.