11/02/13 to 14/02/13 – Our first stop on the long journey south was at Katherine. We came here to see the gorge, and again were disappointed to hear that the main walks were closed (for refurbishment this time). However, there was a longer trail open, so we decided to camp the night and get up early to do the trek the next morning.
At the campground we saw some huge bats flying around looking to perch in the trees. We later learned these were not bats, but rather flying foxes. There must have been a hundred of them screeching and flapping around trying to find a space in the trees. We took a swim in the pool on the campsite. Suddenly several birds began squawking and flew out of one of the trees near the pool. The next moment there was pandemonium when all the flying foxes broke from hanging upside down in silence to screeching and flying around frantically. We realised that this was because there was a 2 metre long python in one of the trees and it was trying to take a bite at the flying foxes.
The next morning we did the walk on top of Katherine Gorge, where we were amused by some wallabies having a comical boxing match. Then we hit the road. We drove for about 200 kilometres before stopping for a rest and a drink at Daly Waters historic pub, which was a typical aussie roadhouse style bar (with underwear pinned to the ceiling and bank notes pinned to the walls). There was also a pool which we had a quick dip in to cool off. On we continued, at this point really beginning to miss the aircon as the mercury rose.
We drove another 300 kilometres, (only stopping for fuel and the odd rest) before making it to the Devil’s Marbles just in time for sunset. We camped here for the night, admiring the rocks and thankful that the flies that had been bothering us whenever we stopped during the day had finally gone to sleep. Luckily, as we were further inland and it was drier, there were less mosquitoes, meaning once it was dark it was comfortable to sit outside and watch the stars again. We had our dinner but afterwards we couldn’t seem to find our block of cheese that we’d left on the table. We can only assume that the dingo we saw minutes before the mysterious disappearance must had taken it without us noticing.
The next morning, now just 300 kilometres from Alice Springs, we set off again, stopping briefly at the Wycliffe Well UFO Centre. Really, it was just a petrol station with some murals of aliens and a wooden cut-out of a spaceship, but it made us chuckle. Apparently this area claims the most UFO sightings in all of Australia.
Finally around lunchtime we arrived in Alice Springs, slap bang in between the Macdonnell Ranges and the desert. Alice is a small town of just 28,000 people, but is the biggest in the Outback. For those interested in Australian TV series, it has a Flying Doctors base and a Lasseters. It also has a dried up river, a solar power station and a Saloon, but not that much else.
We finished stocking up on supplies in Woolworth’s just in time to pop out to the East Macdonnells to have a quick walk around Emily’s Gap and then Jessie’s Gap where we had a chat with a friendly aboriginal man who first asked my permission to talk to Dave. He told us that we should have a look at the impressive Trephina Gorge too, but the river had dried up completely (again we were disappointed we couldn’t swim as even the billabongs had dried up). We still had a nice walk there along the top of the gorge and camped there for the night with a familiar face (and probably the only one for at least 20km around) from Devil’s Marbles and he lent us the use of his shower as well as filling us in on what not to miss around Alice. He was going to be a tour guide at Uluru in a few days, and so told us which walks were best there too. We went to bed and after a decent night’s sleep we began to think we could cope with life in the desert with no air-con after all as we were now getting used to the heat.
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