Friday 29.04.11 Trephina Gorge

We got up at around 7.30am, had juice, coffee and bacon, eggs and baked beans to give us the energy boost to do a couple of walks around the Gorge. We got away around 10am after Steve did some experimental plugging up of the hole in his tyre that seemed to do the job. We walked along the ridge top of the Gorge, back down to Trephina Creek and took our boots off to walk back through the mostly ankle deep, but cold, creek. It was absolutely stunning scenery with warm but not hot temperatures, although it's easy to see that in the height of summer it would be blisteringly hot.

Along the way, Steve and Sophie were up ahead and called out that they could see a snake swimming just in front of them. Being fairly knowledgeable about Australian snakes, Paul identified it as possibly a juvenile western brown snake, so we gave it the respect it justifiably deserved. It wasn't very big, perhaps 40cm long, and was dark grey in colour with a coppery coloured head and tail.

We continued on, stopped to put our boots back on and did the second of the shorter walks, the Panorama Trail, that wound its way up the other side of the gorge. This took about another hour, and in hindsight perhaps should be walked first, as the walk back to camp through the creek is a highlight.

Back at camp we had lunch and had a quiet little afternoon of not doing much at all. Paul tried his hand at his first ever damper, which was a great success with butter and honey. We then chopped up the veggies to go in the camp stew for the evening. A cast iron camp oven definitely imparts intangible flavours that can't be captured in a kitchen-based pot or slow cooker, we all agreed that it was the best one ever.

It was a much quieter night mouse-wise, with only a few heard scrabbling on the canvas during the night. One definitely did get in and took about half an hour for us not to find it at all. That makes it a bit harder to fall asleep, but it seems to have got away.

Thursday 28.04.11 Redbank Waterhole - Alice Springs - Trephina Gorge

Another nice warming breakfast of freshly ground coffee and porridge was had before the inevitable pack up and move on to the next and final destination before heading home - Trephina Gorge. Instead of going back to the Stuart Highway to Alice Springs we continued on the 4WD track up Owen Spring Reserve towards Larapinta Drive. This is a gorgeous drive winding along the Hugh River, requiring a couple of easy river crossings. We stopped at the ruins of the Old Owen Springs Homestead for some photos and marvelling at what a place to live with such a spectacular backdrop, then just past the Ranger's station Steve got his first ever flat tyre. That delayed our lunch stop in Alice Springs for a short while, but we survived.

We went back to the Red Dog Cafe in the Todd Mall so Rachel could have another roo burger, then Paul and Rachel spent a good hour in a camping shop trying on half a dozen pair of boots before Rachel settled on yet another pair of Scarpas. A bag of replacement supplies at Woolies, and then we were off to Trephina Gorge.

We got to the Gorge Campground around 5pm and quickly set up. This campground is in a bit of a valley, with sheer ochre red cliffs on one side where the setting sun hits them brilliantly. The temperature quickly dropped, while the numbers of mice exploded. A quick and easy dinner of pumpkin, feta and sage risotto with a creamed rice chaser meant we were in bed early at around 9pm. Just as well, for what was soon to come, as we discovered in the time it took for us to get dessert out from the stash of food under the bed in the camper and in bed about an hour later, there was evidence of a mouse in da house. We pulled everything out, but it appeared to have gone.

Around 11pm Paul woke up from a mouse crawling on his arm that then went into one of the storage spaces next to the bed and couldn't get out. it was lifted out with some "gentle persuasion" from Paul, and we spent the next hour watching about half a dozen mice getting in and out of the camper from four separate places. The camper is virtually weather-proof, but it appears not to be vermin-proof, and the spots the mice could access are not ones that can easily be sealed up. Paul plugged up the gaps with gaffer tape, and we seemed to have a relatively quiet night after that. Not happy, Jan.

Tuesday 26.04.11 Yulara - Redbank Waterhole

We got away from Yulara about 10.30am and headed for Redbank Waterhole in Owen's Springs Reserve about 60km south of Alice Springs. Rather than going on the Stuart Highway where we had already been, we planned on going up towards King's Canyon on Luritja Rd, and then east along the Ernest Giles Highway. We had a roadside stop for lunch, then onto the wide dirt road of the Ernest Giles that had a few ditches and corrugations along the way but was otherwise a good dirt road. It's a little bit more picturesque than the Stuart Highway as well, and provided the opportunity to see some countryside we hadn't seen before, and may not get a chance to see again, even if it is more of the same!

We then turned off this and back onto the blacktop of the Stuart Highway heading north, with just a short stretch before the turnoff to Owen's Springs Reserve. Redbank Waterhole was only about 6km from the turnoff on an easy but sandy 4WD track, and there were numerous choices for setting up camp along the waterhole. 

We set up, had a hunt for timber to set up a fire, and settled down with a couple of wee drinkies and bikes and cheese watching the sun go down through the gum trees - a very picturesque and peaceful setting.

Paul got to play with the new camera some more, and tested out some night time star shots. We didn't get to see any shooting stars or satellites, but we weren't disappointed.

Despite being the last day of an unusually long 5 day long weekend (Easter and Anzac Day back to back) there was little evidence of intensive recent use in the area and we only saw two other cars parked nearby. One car followed us in just after dark and continued along past us and camped at least another 500m away, so they may as well not have been there. We had dinner and watched the bush tv for a while, then headed for bed. The mice were friendly here too and kept Steve awake all night; they scrabbled on the canvas of the camper a few times but not enough to bother us too much.

Sat 23.04.11 Alice Springs - Rainbow Valley

We didn't have to rush on Saturday morning as we had until 10am to put the boys in the kennel, and Steve, Lucy and Sophie were leaving the Devil's Marbles for Alice Springs, and weren't due in until lunch time. We dropped the boys off at Paws n Claws, refuelled, went to do our final shop, until Rachel realised she had left her credit card there, so back to pick it up. We then went back into town to park up, whereupon Rachel couldn't find the keys for the trailer. So we re-traced our steps back to the kennel again, but we couldn't see them en-route, nor were they at the kennels. It would have helped if we checked the centre console, which was where they were all along. Hmmmm.

Back into town was where Paul had a chicken burger and Rachel had the best kangaroo burger ever. By the time we had shopped, Steve and Lucy were in town, so we caught up with them before arranging for us to go on ahead to Rainbow Valley, in the hope we would secure two of only seven camps sites. We got there at about 3pm, found only one camp set up and 2 other vehicles, and the perfect site for two vehicles.

Steve and Lucy arrived shortly after and we got all set up at the only section on the grounds that permitted two vehicles side by side.

A steady stream of vehicles and tour groups turned up in time to get photos of the rocks at sunset, all of which disappeared soon enough once the sun went down. And this is what they were after, as were we.

We also found this little fella, who was quite inquisitive and not at all fearful.

One the sun went down the temperature dropped quite quickly. We put some warmer clothes on, reheated some pre-cooked chicken curry and cracked open a couple of beers. Perfect. Apart from multiple and fearless mice benefitting from the recent rains and abundant food supplies. With no ambient light, the stargazing was amazing, and we went to bed to single digit temperatures.