To get to Palm Valley, we picked up a permit to travel the Red Centre Way (or Mereenie Loop). The gravel/dirt road travels through native lands, though the permit is more a registration of vehicle and persons who travel the Loop so that authorities know who is out there on the day in case of problems. We had anticipated a rough track but in fact it was quite an easy drive. At the end of the Loop though we still had 43 kilometres of unsealed road to Hermannsburg, the old mission station, now an Aboriginal community. That road was the worst we have travelled in a long time. The corrugations nearly shook the vehicle apart, not to mention ourselves! The 155 km Mereenie Loop took us two and a half hours but the 43 km Hermannsburg track took us one and a half!

At the turnoff to Palm Valley, a sign warned that the road was for high clearance 4WD vehicles only and to allow 3 hours to get there. And it's only 21 kilometres…

The road (and I use that word lightly) mostly followed the dry river bed of the Finke River. We drove over sand and over large river pebbles weaving our way following the meanders of the river and around huge River Gums growing in the river bed itself. Debris high up the trunks of trees shows just how much water can flow here. No doubt the place is generally inaccessible in the Wet. The Finke River is supposed to be the oldest river valley in the world - there was river running in this valley 100 million years ago.

Reaching the National Park campsite didn't take the full three hours but the last 4 kilometres in to the start of the Valley itself is the really tough track. The track was pretty challenging and they were not kidding when the sign said high clearance vehicles. We drove over rocks, through sand, wound our way around trees. Often I had to get out to decide the best track up a rock ledge and guide Russ in the car. You could almost have walked faster - the 4 kilometres took us 50 minutes, so we were averaging about 5kph.

Palm Valley is a remnant from millions of years ago when this part of the world was wetter and the vegetation lush and tropical. The Central Australian Red Cabbage Palms are found nowhere else and there are no other palms for hundreds of kilometres. Here too are MacDonnell cycads growing in the shady parts of the valley some up to 300 years old.

The 5 km Mpulungkinya walk took us right up the valley to where the palms are thickest and then up onto the sandstone plateau. Rock pools with a surprising amount of water for this time of year dot the valley floor while the red sandstone escarpment is riddled with caves eroded by the wind.

On the way back to camp, we spotted a lone euro grazing, a muscular, dark-furred kangaroo. They are generally shy and not out in daylight hours but the cloudy day may have been responsible for this lucky sight.

At the campground, yellow-throated miner birds made a nuisance of themselves pecking at the mirrors on the car or at their reflection in the windows. Brilliant green and blue mulga parrots settled in the trees around us and dingoes, accustomed to the presence of humans, circled the campsite continually. That night we could hear their howls. Sunset had everyone reaching for their cameras. The low sun lit up the tops of the ridges and they glowed like burning red-hot coals. With a shower just passed a rainbow formed in the pink sky above.