Across Queensland

(Magyar összefoglaló a végén)

Monday, 24 Sep, Winton - We covered another 460 km South-East, from Mount Isa to Winton. The landscape was mountainous until Cloncurry, where we turned South on the Landsborough Hwy, then it became flat and almost devoid of trees, just open grassland, with occasional creekbeds announced by the denser and higher vegetation. But it must be good cattle country as we saw a lot of cattle grazing around. We also saw some camels, although behind a fence so they might not have been wild camels; they looked docile and young and pretty. But two emus grazing just beside the road were definitely wild. 
The weather was a bit less hot than yesterday, "only" 36 degrees max, the sky was ovecast most of the day, and very smoky in the morning.

Winton - gemstones and dinosaurs

We came to Winton around 4 pm, set up camp, then went for a drive-around town. Winton has a lot of attractions considering its size of 900 population. It is famous for being the birthplace of "Waltzing Mathilda", the unofficial national anthem, the poem written by Banjo Patterson and played in public the first time here in the North Gregory Hotel in 1895. It also claims to be the birthplace of QANTAS, although it shares this honour with Longreach 180 km down South. There are also opal fields around here where people can do their own digging and try their luck to find something pretty.  And above all, it is "the dinosaur capital of Australia", as the largest collection of fossils found in the area is housed here in a museum 25 km outside town. 

Impromptu to Musical Fence
played by Kate

We walked through the North Gregory Hotel, the historic general store building, visited some opal stores, then some curiosities: the Musical Fence, a funny installation created by visiting musicians where we could try our creative genius (unsuccessful but fun), and 

A part of Arno's Wall

Arno's Wall, built from concrete and rock plus various pieces of junk including old machinery, complete motorbikes, typewriters, boat propellers, car wheels, etc. by a German-born local "artist". This is a funny place indeed. 
On the way home we saw a road train full of camels, on their way to the meatworks for export - this was a sad sight.

The Age of Dinosaurs Museum

Tuesday, 25 Sep, Longreach - In the morning we went to visit the Age of the Dinosaurs museum and laboratory, on the "jump-up", an elevated plateau 12 km outside town, then another 18 km on gravel road. It is a private enterprise, started by a local farmer, David Elliot, who found the first few dinosaur fossils in his own paddock in 1999, and with a few other local people played a lead role in establishing the museum and research facility, with some donations and government support. 

Some of the biggest bones

The building of the museum is brand new, opened in April 2012, a remarquable building itself, worthy of an architectural award. It houses a large collection of dinosaur fossils, some of the largests ever found. There are thousands of more fossils in the laboratory awaiting to be cleaned and prepared for research and display. 

Fossil preparation

We listened to the history of the museum, the story of the dinosoaurs and how the digging and processing works, mostly by volunteers. It was an interesting morning at a beautiful site with nice views over the flat surrounding of Winton.

Longreach railway station

Then we drove to Longreach, another 180 kms to the South-East. It is a bigger town just beside the Thompson river. It is still a very hot place, 36 degrees in the afternoon. We walked around the town centre, the old railway station, and went out to check the river, which has a lot of water in it, a surprise after all the dry riverbeds we saw lately.

The "Tree of Knowledge"

Wednesday, 26 Sep, Emerald - Today we travelled another 400-odd kms Eastward, mostly to ecape from the heat. We came through the Great Dividing Range, only 4-500 m high but separating the narrow Eastbound waters from the rest flowing into the middle of the continent to disappear into the sand (sometimes called Lake Eyre). As we passed the range, some clouds appeared in the sky, and the temperature remained below 30 degrees. What a relief! We came through Barkaldine, where we stopped to appreciate the "Tree of Knowledge", the historical site of the 1891 Shearers' Strike, an interesting memorial after the original tree has been poisoned. 

The Unionists' Memorial, Barkaldine

We passed through Jericho, with its "Crystal Trumpeters", constructed in memory of the Biblical story of the town with the same name. We came to Emerald around 2 pm, set up camp in a very nice caravan park, and in the afternoon and evening we enjoyed the warm but not too warm temperature.

Emerald Town Centre

Thursday, 27 Sep, Emerald - A quiet, relaxing day. In the morning we went to the town centre and walked around. It is a very nicely maintained and well organised small town, lots of beautiful trees and landscaping, seems like freshly renovated. We saw a 250 million year old fossilized tree trunk, and the "largest Van Gogh painting on an easel", Sunflowers, in the middle of a park, as a memorial to one of the main products in the area. In the afternoon we just rested in the camp, and enjoyed the good weather.

The Sunflowers, Emerald

Bush Chapel, Botanic Gardens

Friday, 28 Sep, Emerald - This morning we went out to visit Lake Maraboon, a vast expanse of water created behind Fairbairn Dam, with picninc areas, camping and watersports. But to our surprise, at the very end of the 18 kms road from town we found the bridge leading to the lake closed for all traffic, including pedestrians. So we had to return without seeing anything; not a tourist-friendly singposting.

Grass trees, Botanic Gardens

Then we went to the Botanic Gardens, a very nice and well maintained place for such a small town. We spent the morning walking around the various sections of the gardens, followed by another quiet afternoon in the caravan park.

Carnarvon Creek

Sunday, 30 Sep, Carnarvon Gorge - Saturday morning we came down to Carnarvon Gorge, and set up camp in the Takarakka Bush Resort, just 4 km outside the national park. By the time we had lunch and a bit of rest, it started to rain, and went on raining lightly all afternoon and evening. We ventured out to the visitor centre to pick up a map of the walks, but that was enough of the outside activities for the day. Fortunately we could exchange some of the books we had already finished to new ones, so we had enough to read for the evening.

Baloon Cave

The rain has stopped in the evening and today we woke up to cloudy but dry weather. We did a few shorter walks in the morning to some closer attractions, Baloon Cave with rock paintings, Mickey Creek Gorge, a narrow side-gorge with lots of fan palms and cycads along the creek, and a rock pool along Carnarvon creek. We saw lots of cute grey wallabies who were not afraid of us, continued grazing a few metres from us. 

Mickey Creek Gorge

In the afternoon the cloud cover started to break up, but we had enough walking for today, we stayed at the camp reading and resting. The forecast is promising, so we left the main gorge walk for tomorrow.

Monday, 1 Oct, Carnarvon Gorge - The forecast was right, we had a bright sunny day, 24/25 degrees, ideal for bushwalking. We did a 14 km return trip along the main track into the gorge, visiting all the side attractions: 

Moss Garden

- Moss Garden, a narrow side canyon where water drips constantly from the sandstone walls supporting a lush carpet of mosses and ferns, and a small waterfall.

Looking up from the Amphitheatre

- Amphitheatre, a 60 m deep round chamber hidden inside the walls of the gorge, accessible through a narrow vertical crack in the rock, a fantastic atmosphere.

King Ferns in Ward's Canyon

- Ward's Canyon, a small side-gorge, with a very cool microclimate, where a tropical fern species, king fern, survived the climatic changes over the millenia.

The Art Gallery

- Art Gallery, a 62 m long overhanging sandstone wall with thousands of Aboriginal engravings ochre stencils and free-hand paintings. A lot of the engravings represent the vulva, this is the only site in Australia with this symbol.

One of the many creek crossings

The track was relatively easy and flat, with some ups and downs mostly at the side tracks, and crossing the Carnarvon creek many times. We returned by about 2.30 pm, and that was enough activity for the day. We had a good rest in the afternoon, and then joined the two-course dinner offered at the Takarakka resort.

Our itinerary can be seen at the following Google Map:
http://g.co/maps/wcwv8 
(Note that to see the route after Bowen, you need to move down to the bottom of the left panel, and select the following pages!)

A múlt héten jó sokat utaztunk, foleg a hoség elol menekülve. Hétfo reggel indultunk Mount Isa-ból, aztán Winton és Longreach-on keresztül szerdán értünk Emerald-ba, ahol végre kicsit elviselhetobb volt a hoség, ott megpihentünk 3 napra. 
Winton érdekes kis város, elég sok látnivalóval ahhoz képest hogy csak 900 lakosa van. Egyik érdekessége hogy itt született 1895-ben a nem-hivatalos ausztrál himnusz (majdnem ez lett a hivatalos is), a "Waltzing Mathilda", egy népszeru folk-song, és ehhez sok emlék fuzodik. Úgyszintén azt hirdetik hogy itt született a QANTAS légitársaság, ugyan ezen a címen Longreach is osztozik. És foleg Winton "Ausztrália dinoszaurusz-fovárosa", itt a közelben találták a legtöbb dinoszaurusz maradványt, és a helyi lakosok kezdeményezésére és adakozásából létesített múzeumban orzik a legnagyobb gyujteményt. Most is folyik a gyujtés és feldolgozás itt helyben, foleg önkéntesek dolgoznak egy minimális állandó professzionális stáb felügyeletével és a Queensland-i múzeum támogatásával. Szerda reggel meglátogattuk ezt a múzeum- és preparáló-muhely komplexumot, nagyon szép helyen van, a várostól 12 km-re, egy a síkságból kiugró fennsík peremén, szép kilátással a környékre. Maga a múzeum épület is nagyon szép, teljesen új, nagyon jól beleillik a környezetbe, be is van nevezve egy nemzetközi építészeti pályázatra. Egy másik érdekesség a "Musical Fence", egy jól behangolt drótkerítés, amit egy itt-járt zenész-csoport készített kint a város szélén ahol nem zavar senkit a kolompolás, és bárki kedvére játszhat rajta-vele. Mi is jól elszórakoztunk vele egy ideig.
Kedden továbbmentünk Longreach-be, ahol nem volt annyi érdekesség, és ami lett volna, azt sem volt kedvünk megnézni a 36 fokos hoségben (foleg nekem nagyon elegem volt már belole), gyorsan továbbmentünk.
Szerdától 3 napig Emerald-ban voltunk, ahol végre nem volt annyira meleg, "csak" 31-32 fok, de az már egész kellemesnek tunt. Ez a város már a Great Dividing Range (a nagy vízválasztó hegység) keleti oldalán van, kb 350 km-re a tengerparttól, itt már érzodik az óceán enyhítu hatása. Helyes kis város, nagyon szépen rendbentartva, a központja frissen felújítva. Különösebb látnivaló nincs benne, azért körülnéztünk amit lehetett, de foleg pihentünk és élveztük a kellemes idojárást.
Szombat reggel jöttünk le a Carnarvon Gorge nemzeti parkhoz, és 3 napig itt maradunk. Sajnos amint ideértünk és letáboroztunk egy kempingben, elkezdett esni az eso, és esett egész délután. Így nem sokat tudtunk tenni, csak elmentünk körülnézni a turista-irodába, szereztünk egy térképet a túra-utakról, aztán csak itthon olvasgattunk a lakókocsiban. Szerencsére, hosszú ido óta eloször, ki tudtuk cserélni a kiolvasott könyveinket újabbakra, így megint van mit olvasni. 
Vasárnap már nem esett az eso, csak felhos, de kellemes ido volt, délelott tettünk egy pár rövidebb sétát a közelebbi látnivalókhoz, láttunk egy barlangot aboriginal sziklarajzokkal, az egyik mellék-völgyet sok legyezo-pálmával, a Carnarvon patak sziklás vízmedencéjét, és sok egészen szelíd kengurut, ott legelésztek pár méterre tolünk, nagyon aranyosak.
Hétfore kiderült az ég, szép napsütéses idoben mentünk a fo kanyonba kirándulni. Egy 14 km-es oda-vissza utat csináltunk a fo völgy mentén, és útközben meglátogattuk az adódó érdekességeket:
- Moss Garden, egy kis szuk mellékvölgyben a víz szivárog a homokko sziklafalból és körben a falon dús moharéteget és páfrány-erdot táplál,
- Amphitheatre, egy 60 m mély körbezárt szikla-terem a kanyon falában, amit egy szuk függoleges hasadékon keresztül lehet megközelíteni, nagyon érdekes, misztikus hely,
- Ward's canyon, egy másik szuk kis melékvölgy, nagyon hus mikroklímával, ahol egy oskori trópikus páfrány-fajta, king fern, megmaradt, egyedül itt az egész kontinensen a trópusi részek alatt,
- Art Gallery, egy 62 m hosszú visszaugró sziklafal, tele Aboriginal karcolt és festett ábrákkal, köztük rengeteg  vulva szimbólummal, ami egyedül itt fordul elo az országban.
Az út nem volt nehéz, többnyire lapos, sokszor kereszteztük a Carnarvon patak széles medrét, de az oldal-völgyekbe elég sokat kellett fel-le mászni. Fél 3 felé értünk vissza, jól elfáradtunk, délután csak pihentünk. Estére befizettünk a "resort"-ban kínált vacsorára.

Az útvonalunk a következo Google Map-on látható:
http://g.co/maps/wcwv8
(A Bowen utáni szakaszokhoz le kell menni a baloldali panel aljára, és a következo oldalakra kattintani!!)

Back to Queensland

(Magyar összefoglaló a végén)

Yeperenye, the spiritual ancestor of the local people

Wed-Thu, 19-20 Sep, Alice Springs - We did not do much in the last two days. Mostly waited for our fridge to be repaired, which finally happened this morning, and now we are ready to continue our trip. These were very hot days, above 37 degrees at midday until about 6 pm. The mornings were still more pleasant, we stayed in the camp, refreshing ourselves in the pool before lunch. In the afternoon we went to the Araluen Cultural Precinct, to visit the art gallery and the Central Australian Museum, where the air conditioning was as much part of the attraction as the displays themselves. But there were also some memorable artworks and the museum was quite interesting, too.

In the Central Australian Museum

Passing a fire front along the Stuart Hwy

Fri-Sat, 21-22 Sep, Barkly Homestead - We left Alice Friday morning and got to Wauchope by late lunchtime. There is a small caravan park beside the hotel (pub), we spent the afternoon and night there trying to forget about the heat (38 degrees). 

The Wauchope Hotel

Devil's Marbles

Saturday morning, in the cooler hours we visited the Devil's Marbles, only 10 kms further from Wauchope. 

Devil's Marbles

Barkly Homestead

Then continued on to Tennant Creek, a short stop at the Nyinkka Nyunyu cultural centre, and the Barkly Highway to Barkly Homestead. We arrived again around lunchtime, and with that we have closed a big loop over NT and Western Australia. We passed through this point on 29 May on our way to Darwin and now we are on the home stretch, although it is still a long way, about 3,000 km more to get to Sydney. 

Birds of prey at Barkly

Barkly Homestead is a very nice place, even in this very hot weather. We enjoyed the pool several times in the afternoon, rested in the shade, did a bit of cooking and reading and listened to our own music. Recently we discovered the benefits of the "shuffle" function on our iPod/iPhone, it gives interesting switches from the eclectic mix of our musical repertoire. 

A present from a road train

Sunday, 23 Sep, Mount Isa - We travelled another 450 km Eastward, left the Northern Territory, back in QLD, and came in to Mount Isa for a late lunch. One parting present we got from NT is a severely cracked windscreen, thanks to a big roadtrain passing opposite and throwing up a big stone bullet, it sounded like gunfire, nothing we could do about it. Fortunately the crack is somewhere in the middle between the two seats, not in the line of sight for either of us. Hope it will stay stable until we get back to Sydney.

39.6 degrees in the van

Today it was even hotter than before, 39.6 in the van and 42 outside in the afternoon. And the outlook is similar for the next few days in this part of the country. It is hard to believe that only a week ago in the West MacDonnell ranges we had to use our electric heater in the morning because there was only 11 degrees in the van. I complained a lot about the cold in the last month or so, now I've got far more than what I wanted from the opposite. It looks like there are only extremes in the outback. Fortunately again there was a nice pool in the caravan park where we could refresh ourselves occasionally. 

Our itinerary can be seen at the following Google Map:
http://g.co/maps/wcwv8 
(Note that to see the route after Bowen, you need to move down to the bottom of the left panel, and select the following pages!)

Múlt héten még két napot Alice Springs-ben töltöttünk, foleg azt vártuk, hogy megjavítsák a fridzs-ünket, ami végül is csütörtök délelott megtörtént, és azóta úgy tunik, rendben van. Közben sokat szenvedtünk a melegtol, mert minden nap 37-38 fok volt, és este sem hult le 32 alá, csak éjfél után ment lejjebb. Mindkét nap délelott a még jobban elviselheto (vagyis 32 alatti) idoben a kempingben pihentünk, felfrissültünk a kis úszómedencében, a délutánt meg a múzeumban aztán meg bevásárló központok légkondicionált termeiben töltöttük a meleg elol menekülve. De a múzeum érdekes is volt, sok ásvány, kristály, kozet, növény, állat, fosszilok, és sok információ a múltról, jól el lehetett nézelodni.
Pénteken elindultunk tovább északnak, este egy Wauchope nevu kis "hotel" (kocsma) mellett aludtunk. Szombat reggel megnéztünk a közelben egy újabb geológiai érdekességet, a Devil's Marbles (az ördög golyói), egy lekopott, összetöredezett gránit-réteg fura és látványos maradványait, igazán jól nézett ki és a reggeli frissességben kellemes volt a séta, szép korai fényekben. Szombat délután már kelet felé fordultunk, és este a Barkly Homestead-nél aludtunk, ahol már egyszer korábban is felfelé menet május 29-én. Így bezárult egy nagy kör a kontinens nyugati fele körül, most már csak a keleti oldalon kell hazaérnünk, még kb 3ezer km... 
Ma tovább jöttünk kelet felé újabb 450 km-t, visszaértünk Queensland-ba, most Mount Isa-ban vagyunk. Útközben kaptunk egy kellemetlen ajándékot, egy jó nagy repedést a szélvédobe egy mellettünk elhaladó nagy teherautó vert fel egy követ, úgy hangzott mint a puskalövés. Szerencsére a két ülés között elég fönt van, nem zavar a látásban, és reméljük nem fog tovább repedni amíg visszaérünk Sydney-be. 
Továbbra is sokat szenvedünk a melegtol, ma még melegebb volt, 42-t mértünk odakint és 39.6-ot a lakókocsiban. Most, este 8-kor is 33 fokban írom ezt, teljes szélcsendben. Szerencsére a kempingben van úszómedence, néhányszor fel tudtunk frissülni benne egy rövid idore. Nehéz elképzelni hogy pont egy hete még Glen Helen-ben reggel be kellett futeni mert 11 fok volt csak. Az elmúlt hónapokban sokat panaszkodtam a hidegrol, hát most megkaptam, csak gyozzem elviselni. Úgy látszik a kontinens belsejében csak ilyen végletek vannak, jobb lesz másfelé menni... Holnap indulunk tovább dél felé, de még pár napig ugyanilyen idore számíthatunk.

Az útvonalunk a következo Google Map-on látható:
http://g.co/maps/wcwv8
(A Bowen utáni szakaszokhoz le kell menni a baloldali panel aljára, és a következo oldalakra kattintani!!)

The West MacDonnell Ranges

(Magyar összefoglaló a végén)

Rev. John Flynn's grave

Friday, 14 Sep, Alice Springs - After a second round of tests, our serviceman found out that the problem with our fridge is the thermostat, but they don't have it in stock, it will have to be ordered from the supplier (Dometic), and who knows how long it will take to get it here. Not good news, but in the meantime the fridge is now working on full strength by bypasing the thermostat. We'll see what happens next week when we come back.

Simpson's Gap

Walking to Simpson's Gap

In the morning we went out to the West Mac-Donnell Ranges to visit the two closest attractions. Simpson's Gap is just 17 kms from the town. There is an easy 20-min walk from the car park to the gap between two impressive steep rough rock faces where Roe creek passes through the mountain range. The creek bed is mostly dry, but there was some water in a few lower holes. We obeyed the signs and resisted the temptation to swim...

Standley Chasm

Standley Chasm is a further 20 km away, a narrow gap carved into the sandstone by the Finke river. Another 20-minute walk leads up to the chasm along the riverbed surrounded by lush dark green vegetation, very different from the area outside this valley. Some of them, like the cycad palms, are remainders from a long-gone wetter era. There was some water streaming down between the rocks. The Chasm itself is quite short and narrow, about 4-5 m wide, but very impressive between the 80 m high reddish vertical walls. We were there exactly at the right time, around 11 am when the sun starts to light up one side and the reflection the other, and were lucky to be alone in the gap. Two busloads of tourists arrived just when we left, they would have a very different experience in there.
In the afternoon back in Alice we went for another walk around the town centre, looking for the old Stuart Town Gaol (not very impressive), then went shopping to fill up our reserves for the next few days.

Glen Helen Resort

Saturday, 15 Sep, Glen Helen Resort - We came out to this place in the morning, about 130 km from Alice Springs, along the Namatjira Drive. This is at the West end of the West MacDonnell Ranges. The "resort" is at an old homestead, just beside Glen Helen Gorge, at the foot of an impressive vertical red rock wall. While it does not live up to the image one would normally associate with the word "resort", it is quite a nice place apart from the dusty barren campground, but that's acceptable in the desert.  

The restaurant at Glen Helen Resort

This will be our base camp for the next few days, to discover the attractions in the surrounding area.

Glen Helen Gorge

We got here by 10.30, so we had enough time to go down to the Gorge, only a 15-minute walk from the homestead. This gorge is one of several along the Finke River which starts not far from here and goes down 700 kms to the Simpson Desert. Of course most of the time it is just a dry riverbed, but there are several permanent waterholes along the way, one of them right here, across the gorge. 

It was interesting to see quite a lot of water, surrounded by reeds and many birds, ducks and cormorants, and they say there are nine species of native desert fish in the water. For this reason we could only get to the entrance of the gorge, but we spent some time just watching the birds and the water, a nice quiet place.

Mt Sonder

After lunch we went on a tour, first stopping at the nearby lookout. The main attraction is Mt Sonder, the fourth highest mountain in Central Australia, 1300+ m high, but all around the scenery is very pretty, with the Finke river just below the lookout (and quite a lot of water in it), and the MacDonnell Ranges on both sides. 

Redbank Gorge

Then we went to Redbank Gorge, an even narrower and more exotic gorge than the Glen Helen. This one is also full of very cold water, so we just sat around the entrance and enjoyed the view and the many colours of the rough rock faces. 

Rock colours

In  full gear

While travelling in the outback, one thing I was surprised about so far was the lack of flies. Not any more. From what I read and heard about the outback I expected a continuous torment from flies, and so far there was nothing like that. Now it seems they woke up with the warmth of spring, and started to be a nuisance when walking. Fortunately we were well prepared for this attack, and now were happy to put on our fly-protection screens and just laugh at them from behind.

A rock wallaby

Just in front of the gorge we also saw a black-footed rock wallaby, sitting immobile on a rock of almost the same colour as her skin, so it was very hard to recognise it. It is a very rare and endangered animal, we were glad to see one. We also saw a dingo, sitting just a few metres from us passing by and scratching fervently, seemingly very much used to humans; not such a good sight.

Serpentine Gorge from the lookout

Sunday, 16 Sep, Glen Helen Resort - We did a lot of "work" today. First we went to Serpentine Gorge, about 40 km back towards Alice Springs. The walking track to the gorge is about 1.3 km, an easy walk, but then we climbed up to a lookout, which was a bit harder, but the wonderful view we got up there was worth the effort. We also saw another rock wallaby sunning very close on a rock ledge, it was cute. Back down, we walked to the entrance of the gorge, again blocked by a deep waterhole so we could only appreciate the view from that point. 

Serpentine Gorge

The Big Hole

Next we went to the Ellery Creek Big Hole, a very popular wide waterhole, with lots of people coming out from Alice Springs, especially on a Sunday morning. Some brave people, Germans obviously, ventured into the cold water, for us it was enough to take in the view.

The Ochre Pits

On the way back we stopped at the Ochre Pits, a very nice spot where a range of colourful ochre walls are visible at the side of a creek. It is an important place for aboriginals mining the ochre and taking it to all over Central Australia. 

Ochre Pits

The choir in Ormiston Gorge

After lunch we went to Ormiston Gorge, where a local acapella choir from Alice Springs, Asante Sana, gave a performance as part of the Alice Springs Desert Festival. They sang mostly South African songs, with an enthusiastic black choirmaster from Melbourne who comes here for a few months every winter to lead the choir. The setting was very nice, the high walls of the gorge creating a natural amphitheatre with good acoustics above a central waterhole. This is quite a large gorge, with lots more to see, we'll have to come back tomorrow to discover the rest of it.

Ormiston Gorge from above

Monday, 17 Sep, Glen Helen Resort - We went back to Ormiston Gorge this morning. First we climbed up to a lookout with stunning views of the gorge, the creek and the surrounding mountains. We came down on the opposite side which led down to the gorge itself. This one is quite long and although there is a lot of water in it at several ponds, one can get through the rocks sandy creekbed. The rocks has an amazing variety of forms, textures and colours, we could never had enough to see. It was a good and relatively easy walk and a very enjoyable place. 

Ormiston Gorge

We were back at the resort by 11, and spent the rest of the day just doing nothing and enjoying the view of that impressive read vertical wall in front of us. In the evening we listened to the live music in the lounge of the homestead/resort, a one-man show of guitar and singing. A guy of around 50 years from Adelaide, a high school guitar teacher, he was a good guitar player, not as good but passable as singer, and his repertoire was enjoyable. A pleasant finish to our stay at Glen Helen.

The Lutheran Mission in Hermannsburg

Tuesday, 18 Sep, Alice Springs - We came back to Alice Springs this morning, but made a detour to Hermannsburg to visit the old Lutheran mission establised in the 1870s by two German missionaires. There are about half a dozen old buildings, all in a very poor shape, with lots of old photos and information tables describing the history of the mission and the life of people, aboriginals and missionaries who lived there. 

The old church

This was also the birthplace and main inspiration of Albert Namatjira the famous aborignal painter. The art gallery of the mission shows lots of old original photographs and paintings, not only from Albert but from many of his children who attempted to follow in his footsteps (with not the same level of success).

37 degrees in the van

Back in Alice, in the same caravan park as last week, we are now waiting for our fridge to be repaired, but so far the spare part has not yet arrived. Unfortunately the weather is not very pleasant, windy, dusty and extremely hot. This afternoon we had 37.4 degrees in the van, and about the same outside. And it is expected to be even hotter in the next few days according to the forecast...

Our itinerary can be seen at the following Google Map:
http://g.co/maps/wcwv8 
(Note that to see the route after Bowen, you need to move down to the bottom of the left panel, and select the following pages!)
(Note 2: don't be fooled by the fact that Google maps shows only 4 pages on the first page. If you click on page 4, the next page (5) will appear in the list, then 6 and etc. as you move to the next page. I don't know why it is done in this silly way, but I can't change it, sorry)

A mult hét többi részét és a hétvégét AS-től nyugatra, a West MacDonnell ranges (hegyvonulat) vidékén töltöttük. Egy Glen Helen Resort nevű helyen szálltunk meg, ami nemigen felel meg a képnek ami a "resort" szóról eszünkbe jut, de igazán kellemes hely (a portól eltekintve), egy régi "homestead" (farmház) és nagyon szép a környezete, egy közel 100 m magas függőleges vörös sziklafal tövében. Itt táboroztunk le 3 napra, és végigjártuk a környék nevezetességeit. Ezek többnyire "gorge"-ok, vagyis meredek sziklafalakba vájt szűk szurdokok. Nehéz elképzelni hogy ezen a száraz sivatagos vidéken ahol leginkább csak kiszáradt patakmedreket lehet látni, ilyen munkát tud végezni a víz, de hát sokmillió év alatt ez is megtörténik. Végigjártuk az összes elérhető gorge-ot, sajnos a legtöbbe csak a bejáratáig lehet bejutni, mert ott van egy mélyebb vízmedence ahol egész évben megmarad a víz. Mindegyik egész más és mindegyik szép, fantasztikus érdekes szikla-formációk, színek és felületek, nem lehet megunni. Nem sorolom fel a neveket, de a képeken láthatjátok. Tegnap volt egy koncert is az egyikben, szintén a Desert Festival keretében, egy 70-tagú helyi kórus énekelt többnyire dél-afrikai dalokat, többet Kati is ismert.
Hétfőn reggel visszamentünk ebbe a (Ormiston) gorge-ba, hogy ezt is tüzetesebben megnézzük, felmásztunk egy kilátóhoz, aztán egy darabig a patakmederben - ez volt a kivétel, ahol bele lehetett menni száraz lábbal, pedig elég sok víz is volt benne -, de aztán kifogytunk a látnivalókból, már 11-re itthon voltunk és itthon is maradtunk pihenni délután. Este lementünk a "resort" előcsarnokába ahol élő zene volt, egy ötven körüli pasas Adelaide-ből gitározott (nagyon jól) és énekelt (kevésbé jól de élvezhetően), többnyire kedvünkre való műsort csinált.
Kedden (szep. 18) reggel indultunk vissza de előbb tettünk egy kitérőt Hermansburg-ba, ahol egy Luteránus misszió működött valamikor, 1870 táján alapította két német pap, és működött még a 60-as években is, most inkább múzeum. Van egy fél tucat eredeti épület, elég lerobbant állapotban, bennük sok régi fénykép és információs tábla. Itt születet 1901-ben és élt a leghíresebb aboriginal festő, Albert Namatjira, sok régi fénykép és festmény (reprodukció) látható tőle és a gyerkeitől akik követték apjuk példáját (de kevesebb sikerrel).
Délutánra visszaértünk Alice Springs-be, és most várjuk a fridzsiderünk javítását, de még nem érkezett meg a pótalkatrész. Sajnos az idő elég kellemetlen, zeles, poros és nagyon meleg, délután 37.4 fok volt a lakókocsinkban, és kint is hasonló. Ráadásul a következő napokra még melegebbet jósolnak... 

Az útvonalunk a következo Google Map-on látható:
http://g.co/maps/wcwv8
(A Bowen utáni szakaszokhoz le kell menni a baloldali panel aljára, és a következo oldalakra kattintani!!)