Day 25 - Alice Springs

Stanley Chasm
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After a nice breakfast, we started our tour of the West and East McDonnell Ranges around Alice Springs. Initially we planned to stay a night at the West McDonnell Ranges, but due to the rain the roads were closed with exception to the Stanley Chasm and the Simpson Gap. Stanley Chasm is best to visit between 11 and 1 as the sun will shine into it. There is about a 20 minutes return walk from the car park. The weather was good and we were quite happy for the shade provided by the trees. The Stanley Chasm itself is beautiful. It is a cut in the rock, just a few meters wide and several meters high. The light of the sun changes the colour of the stone, depending on the light.

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The next stop was the Simpson Gap. Again, there is a short walk to the gap from the car park. However, because of the rain, this walk was closed. We still made our way along the path and shortly had to walk on the river bed. The view was (at least to us) less spectacular and we returned relatively fast to the car as the heat was getting to us.

The tourist information mentioned that there is a nice gorge in the East McDonnell Ranges. Treparlina gorge is located about 70km from Alice Springs on the Ross highway. The Ross Highway is funny as at some point the sealed part of the road is in the middle and on the left and right is unsealed road. With the car you drive on the sealed road until another car comes and you start driving with one side of the car on the unsealed part. I haven’t seen such a highway before, but considering that we only crossed a few cars, made it probably a good alternative to a more expensive “normal” sealed road.

West McDonnell Ranges
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We started the walk at Treparlina gorge at about 3 pm. Despite the weather getting hot and sunny, we started the 45 minutes return walk along the rim. This starts, similar to the Kings Canyon, with a steep accent and then along the top rim until the middle part. We soon were panting and sweating in the afternoon sun, but kept going. The views were great and it is much less touristic than Kings Canyon. We thought that the gorge will have some water and so we packed our swimming suits. There was water, but it was standing still and there were tadpoles in all of them. Furthermore we couldn’t see the ground. We decided, despite being in need for a cooling swim, not to go into the water. We walked back along the river bed and using every shade possible. After arriving at the car, switching on the engine and blast the air-conditioning we had an ice cold beer. Don’t worry, it’s not drink driving, we shared one beer.

Simpsons Gap
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Having had enough of walks and looking forward to a nice shower, we drove back. The sky towards Alice Springs was overcast and we could see lighting. Just before reaching the town the rain started and it poured down heavily. In the evening we wanted to explore the restaurants and night life in Alice Springs. Hungry and looking for some heavy food, we stumbled across Keller’s Restaurant on the internet. Sounds German? It is not, it’s Swiss. The kitchen is Swiss-Indian and that was the choice we made. The welcome was very warm and friendly. We ordered Zurich-Geschnetzeltes after I found out that the Wurst-Kaesesalat (Sausage-Cheese Salad) was made with Bockwurst instead of cervelat. I guess only Swiss people will understand the difference, for all others: without the right sausage it’s just not the same. The food was the good and the wine we choose was from Henschke (which we visited before on our travel). We were quite full, but couldn’t resist the dessert: Toblerone Chocolate mousse. Delicious!

Treparlina gorge
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We finished the evening at Bojungle. We choose it because there is a bar with the same name in KL. However, it is of course completely different. Bo’s (as it is called here) is a saloon type of bar. The highlight was the life broadcasting of what is happing there. Visit www.bossaloon.com.au. Thanks Lily for the message. They announced it as new honeymooners.