Caterpillar Dreaming

The beautiful Ellery Creek Big Pond, one of the largest permanent waterholes in the region

Part of the 223km Larapinta Trail which winds along these ridges for the entire length of the Macdonnells

The rock formations here are varied and interesting

Just another beautiful waterhole in the Macdonnell Ranges

Ormiston Gorge, with two great walks, the shorter Ghost Gum and the longer (4 hour) Pound Walk

2 metre Mulga snake encountered at Ormiston Gorge
(don't be fooled by the innocuous name, it's actually a King Brown, one of Australia's deadliest snakes)

Mt Giles, Ormiston Pound

Ray at the lookout, 2 hours into the Pound Walk

Panorama of The Pound, Ormiston Gorge, from the lookout

Our trusty wheeled home, showing the caterpillar-like hills behind

This is the Arrente Yeperenye dreaming which tells the story of an ancestral spirit in the form of a giant caterpillar that moved through Alice Springs and created the landscape including the Ranges

Redbank Gorge, a short 20 minute walk from the carpark

It's cold out in the early mornings!

Again, the giant caterpillar hills on the road back into Alice Springs

An endangered Gouldian Finch at Glen Helen Resort.
Not, unfortunately, in the wild, as you can see from the cage behind 

Glen Helen Gorge, which protects a significant waterhole along the Finke River

Ray's favourite photo of Glen Helen Gorge

The Ochre Pits, just west of Glen Helen.
Despite the $5000 fine, some people still try and dig out pieces to take home!

Sunrise over our bush camp

Two Grey Nomads on the way to Standley Chasm

Our knowledgeable and informative guide, and Arrente woman, Dee, at Standley Chasm.
She taught us much we weren't aware of both about the local area, and her culture

Standley Chasm (it's at least four times as high as the photo shows, in fact it's 80 metres above the rocky floor)

Simpsons Gap, and a chat with a delightful young Californian traveller
 (one of the beauties of this life is the great people you meet along the way)

As Ray gets more involved in his photography, our Blog photos grow.  I have to apologise for including 23 of them in the current blog, but it was originally 38 - culling them down to a manageable number becomes harder with each blog!

However, I digress.  Since leaving Alice Springs last week, we have "done" the West Macdonnell Ranges (commonly known here as the West Macs).  The West Macdonnell National Park stretches for 161 km west of Alice Springs and is a vast and spectacular region which ranges from Simpsons Gap in the east, west to Redbank Gorge, with Ellery Creek Big Hole, Ormiston Gorge, Glen Helen,  and Standley Chasm in between.  The Ranges are estimated to be approximately 340 million years old and were formed when two tectonic plates collided; rocks deep beneath the earth's surface twisted and folded, eventually thrusting upward into the sky.  Wind, water and time have exposed the skeleton of what was once a giant mountain range, much bigger than that which remains today.

The traditional owners of Alice Springs, the Arrente people, are spiritually connected to the Range through Dreamtime stories.  The Yeperenye Dreaming tells of a giant caterpillar which created the landscape, and if you look closely at some of the pictures above, you will see why; the hills undulate like a caterpillar, and are similar striped.

We've probably seen more birdlife in this area than any other so far, with Mulga Parrots, Port Lincoln Ringnecks, Zebra Finches, Magpie Larks, Peregrine Falcon, Wedge tailed Eagles, and Spinifex Pigeons to name the ones we are able to identify.

River Red Gums and Ghost Gums (think Albert Namatjira) abound in the dry creek beds and on the slopes, with all manner of wild flowers getting ready to bloom.  There are huge cycads in the more sheltered gorges and around the waterholes and the fact that the region had rain within the last couple of months means that the usual dry and dusty Red Centre is now a lush and blooming green sea.

We did the 4 hour Pound Walk from Ormiston Gorge camping area, although with photography time it took us 5 hours.  In all that time we only came across 2 other walkers, neither of whom had cameras, so they easily outstripped us.  The lookout giving access to the Pound proper is just breathtaking, and although it is steep and rocky, and I dislike heights, I couldn't help but scramble up to the top to admire the view.  Ormiston Pound is a ring of mountains dominated by Mount Giles on its eastern boundary and Ormiston Gorge on the west, the entire pound encompassing 46 square kilometres.  It offers spectacular views from its circumference of Mount Sonder, Gosses Bluff crater, and the surrounding range.  Apart from those stark statistics, it is also a truly stunning area, one to take the breath away.

The picture of the Mulga snake was taken the day before our walk, in the Gorge itself.  At the time the photo was taken there were young German tourists climbing down the rocks above it, and Ray below trying to get a photograph.  Obviously the snake was feeling threatened, and dropped from the rocks to the sand, right in front of Ray's feet.  He went backwards at a rate of knots, nearly landing in the water, and the snake made for a crack in the rock face!  We took the photo back to the Ranger who informed us that it was a Mulga snake - on looking it up, it turns out that it's one of Australia's deadliest snakes, the King Brown, so too close an encounter!

We have been able to take our time and enjoy the country over the last week and out here it's easy to understand the Aboriginal attachment to country.  It's a timeless land and sometimes just sitting and observing seems the right thing to do.  At the moment the skies are deep blue and cloudless, the daytime temperature between 18 and 23 with a light breeze - what's not to enjoy???



To be continued - the East Macs.