Along Namatjira Drive is a series of canyons and gorges cut into the West MacDonnell Ranges west of Alice Springs. Ellery Creek Big Hole gave us another National Park campsite but unfortunately it was not a patch on the Palm Valley campsite. The Big Hole itself though, a large, deep rockpool on the creek was quite beautiful and in the still morning the reflections in the deeply coloured water was a treat. We drove right to the west of the road to the entrance ...

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...

At the western end of the George Gill Range is Kings Canyon. The Canyon Rim walk, a 6km trek up the escarpment and following the rim in a circle afforded spectacular views of the surrounding countryside and of the canyon depths, tops and walls. This deep slash in the rocks allows Kings Creeks to meander through vertical walls of white sandstone stained red from the dust and the broken scree from the red sandstone layer below it tumbling down into the valley. Th...

After a freezing night in a dump of a campsite at Erldunda on the turnoff to 'The Rock' and the 'Olgas', we headed down the Lasseter Highway for the 240-odd kilometres to the best known Australian tourist attractions in the world. First we passed the lesser known Mt Connor, often said to be the third famous pile of rock in the Territory. Mt Connor rises from the surrounding flatness with steep sides to a flat mesa top, visible from kilometres away. Russ says t...

With cloud cover overnight, we had a relatively mild night: a mere 8° C. But morning brought glorious blue skies a change from the last couple of cloudy days. We are anxious to get to our destination in good time, so we didn't want to spend another day in Coober Pedy if possible. Instead of taking a frightfully expensive tour, we managed to see most of the interesting stuff ourselves with almost no cost! An underground museum was free and had some nice opalis...