No-one much seems to go the East Macs; all the action is around the West Macs with its more famous attractions and of course the Larapinta Trail. The road in is not so long and with a couple of days to spare before meeting up with the group to tackle the Simpson, we took to the road again.

At the end of the tarred road is Ross River Resort - well, like Glen Helen Resort, the word 'resort' is used very loosely. It's really an old homestead on a working cattle station with the original homestead open for viewing and with cabins and a campground around it. We bought an ice cream and asked about the condition of the road to N'Dhala Gorge off a section of the 4WD Binns Track. Fine we were told, just keep to the left at the first creek crossing.

In this season, it is unexpected to have creek crossings with actual water in them - we have done many, many crossings up to now and every one of them has been over a dry river bed. Three wet crossings of the Ross River later cleaned up the underside of the car nicely, though in reality it just made a damp surface for more red dust to adhere to.

The gorge is the most isolated we have visited so far, but it was less than attractive for two very good reasons. Firstly, the surrounding area had all been burnt so the ground was black ash and trees were blackened and leafless. Secondly, and this is what made us decide NOT to camp here overnight, the bush flies descended upon us in numbers to carry us away. Every breath in had them in your nose; you dared not open your mouth for fear of having an unexpected, and unwanted, snack. Out came the hats and the head-nets: without them we would not have stayed long enough to walk up the gorge to see the petroglyphs. But walk we did, all the time trying to keep the flies from ferreting out a way in under the netting.

Another gorge was much more inviting: Trephina Gorge. Here were pleasant campsites along the dry Trephina Creek each with a fire pit which made the chill and windy night bearable.

Arltunga Historic Reserve was but a short 33 kilometres up a dirt road. Two-wheel-drive said the map. The first 10 km were just fine, the road in obvious current re-grading. Then we passed the grader and bone-shaking corrugations took over for the next 23 km. Now 23 km is a very long way when the average speed is about 10kph and you and the vehicle are being shaken to pieces. However we ploughed on knowing that the same 23 horrible kilometres were awaiting our return.

Arltunga was a gold-mining town in the late 1800s, at one time the biggest settlement in the NT. Abandoned around 1930, the once derelict buildings are now under restoration and a terrific Visitor Centre tells all the history in some really interesting displays. The part-Aboriginal woman who looks after it is full of history herself and she and her husband are miners as well. We wandered around the site poking into all the stone buildings, peering into huge boilers and tanks and even climbing down a vertical ladder into one of the mines - well, Russ did that one while I managed to slide into a mine with a very steep entry and crawl back out. Worth the trip out despite the road!