I was back at the lookout early to catch Mt Sonder in the morning's first light. It was lovely and the photos as always are a poor reflection of the beauty we are experiencing.
It was still early, so rather than wake Marjan I wandered by the river. Yes it is the Finke that runs through here....... well more like sits around...... and it is the Finke we have bathed in two afternoons running. The 'oldest' river in the world, if you believe the Tjoritja (I think I have that right) National Park signs. 100 million years old. You may have thought my jokes were old, but they are nothing to this river folks.
Anyway we headed off in the general direction of east, towards Alice Springs. First stop was at Ellery Creek Big Hole. Yep, that is its name. Apparently the deepest, most reliable water hole in the West Macs. Beautiful, you could swim all the way through to the gorge to a beach beyond, which I did. We really just hung around having dips and chatting to other tourists who dropped in, took photos, sometimes swam and left.
One of the tourists was a semi-local who informed us that some of the indigenous folk had told him that there were caves in under the water in the gorge walls, and further more that the odd tourist had been quietly pulled out after getting in there and not being able to get out. That and the bunyip who was now doing the backstroke across the hole made us move on.
I wanted to get to Standley Chasm by mid-day to catch the light coming into it. This is aboriginal land, and they charge people to come and have a look. Not a big problem. It was a short easy walk but even the 20 minutes exhausted Marjan. So after walking back we decided that a lunch of pie for me, and quiche for Marjan accompanied by a wicked iced coffee was a better option than a picnic in the over 40C day. Did I tell you it is hot up here......dammed hot.....
Whilst lunching we chatted to a German couple who we have been seeing off and on during our travels. It turns out they arrived in Adelaide on November 1 and have been on a very, very similar journey to ours. First time I remember them was at William Creek, but we have seen them several times since. That was nice, but we decided that we needed in no particular order:
a) air conditioning;
b) a pool;
c) cool water;
d) air conditioning;
e) to wash the car....been a while since we sat in one of the machines;
d) air conditioning;
e) a shop
So we hit Alice, where the nice man at reception told us he had air conditioning and a pool and we were free to use them for the next four nights....not three as my addled brain had recalled.
We turned the air conditioning on and ooohhheeed with the sensual pleasure of cool air......we switched on electronic devices and ahhhheeeeddd at modern technology.......we washed the car and were aghast that it was silver ......by the way I believe we still have Flinders Ranges mud in the under carriage, all else was removed by the super duper, extra water and pressure wash......we jumped in the pool and were truly cool for the first time since we stepped out of Big Hole, we went shopping, with what felt like half the population (25K in case you are wondering....little bigger than Traralgon but not as big as Warnambool) of Alice Springs and were stunned by the decadent pleasure of nibblies. We are simple people, a little like sheep, constantly in awe of the simple pleasures.
We are planning to do bugger all tonight, and will probably merely do Alice Springs things tomorrow. We are officially on a rest day. It is going to be hot.....dammed hot!
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