West McDonnell Ranges & Palm Valley

An easy and interesting day-trip from Alice Springs is the Western MacDonnell Ranges National Park. The round trip through to Glen Helen is about 300 km, and the many stop-offs will keep you occupied for morning until sundown. Soon out of Alice Springs, the ranges are quite imposing with some interesting geological features for those who like that kind of thing. The mountains are tilted, often near vertical, from where they were laid down and as the softer rock eroded away the narrow bands of harder stone have gone to stand up like the man-made walls of a fort. The Park is well maintained, with free gas bbqs and water provided. For the keen hikers, a walk worth considering is the Larapinta Trail; running some 170 km from Redbank Gorge to Simpsons Gap just outside Alice Springs. It is broken into shorter day or overnight stages.   Stanley Gorge. Probably the most famous tourist photo of the day, the narrow passage through the rocks briefly lights up and glows an intense red when the sun is directly overhead.In private ownership, this site attracts a $6 entrance fee; but that is the only fee you will pay all day as all the other sites are within the National Park.

Ellery Creek Big Hole. Who Ellery was is not mentioned, but fancy that name as permanent memorial to yourself. The water was unbelievably cold, even on a warm day, and we decided not to take a dip in this local swimming venue. Quite a few people have drowned here in the cold, dark depths.   Serpentine Gorge : another permanent waterhole, albeit a wee one in which swimming is banned. A steep walk takes you to a lookout from where you can see the narrow, winding gorge that lies beyond the water. The waterhole largely blocks access to the gorge, and it is consequently full of wildlife.

Ormiston Gorge, a quite large stretch of permanent water where swimming is permitted. It even has a beach of fine river sand. Our visit nearly collided with a school group, but they soon left and we had the peaceful place to ourselves. Alas, the school group was not the Danish Senior Boys Rowing Squad; a group we have been just missing at swimming beaches, lakes and rivers during all our years of travel. Oh well... better luck next holiday...   Another glorious Outback sunset, this time over the Western MacDonnell Ranges.

No, we're not in Bali. We're still in the desert part of Australia. You know, a flat desert with dry hot sand where nothing grows. Actually, these trees (Red Cabbage Palms) are a relic left over from some millions of years ago when central Australia was cooler and wetter than it is now. In one remarkable gorge -- Palm Valley -- they have managed to survive as a small colony. In plant terms, this is like walking down the gorge and finding a herd of dinosaurs.

As Palm Valley is only accessible by 4WD vehicles (and they are not kidding about that, even experienced 4WD drivers get bogged), we had to book into a day tour and leave Burt in Alice Springs. We went with Emu Run Tours, who were fine, but like all tours this meant we had to waste time looking at crappy paintings at Hermannsburg Mission and didn't have enough time to do the full 6.5km walk around Palm Valley. As it was, we made a lightning dash as far as we could before running back; only to near die of heat exhaustion on the way home. Oh, and here's Hermannsburg again... how thrilling.

apart from the palms, the cycads are another relic from the past that make this look like a set for Jurassic Park. Although the cycads look soft and ferny, their leaves are actually quite stiff and could easily poke your eye out.   Once you move up from the sheltered floor of the gorge the low rainfall and exposure to the searing heat soon alters the vegetation back that typical for the region. It is an incredible fluke that those palms survived all this time.

Near the entrance to Palm Valley, this was another shot requiring a dash in the heat to make sure our photo was taken before the herd of twats caught up and ruined the photo by standing in the shot. Ever the perfect gentlemen, we left the rock after the photos so as not to do the same thing to them.

	In Alice Springs we stayed across the Todd River at Desert Palms Resort, a nice enough place that looked -- with all the palms and huts and a pool -- like a cheaper resort that had escaped from Bali. Alice Springs is nothing photogenic (so, no photos) but has a few interesting sites (such as the Old Telegraph Building) and is in an attractive setting with the Western and Eastern MacDonnell Ranges looming either side of the city. Yes, we would call it a city as it now has 27,000 inhabitants and operates as the major service centre for a vast area. In the early 1950's the town had little more than hundreds of people living there. Hmmm... damn, Mum and Dad should have bought shares in the place. One thing we can rave about are the excellent meals we had while in town. Arriving late, we decided on the Thai restaurant at Lasseter's Hotel Casino; a short stroll from Desert Palms Resort. After several weeks without our usual intake of Asian food, this meal was much appreciated as the glorious smell of basil and fishsauce and jasmine rice wafted up from the tables (certainly worth a visit, even if the Philippine waitress had no idea what we said in Thai!) The following night we ate at Red Ochre Grill in the Todd Mall, a place that had been recommended by Sue from Dale's work. It is rather bewildering that more restaurants don't take advantage of the superb night climate and have open-air dining, but Red Ochre at least does. Grant foolishly decided on barramundi which was only average, but Dale near choked himself on a door-stopper of a camel steak. Add that to the list of foods we've tried... Still feeling in a rather carnivorous mood, we opted for The Overlanders Steakhouse at 72 Hartley Street the next night. Quite apart from this appearing to be the gay employment epicentre of Alice Springs (it must be all those butch saddles and plows hanging from the ceiling), the meat was perfectly cooked. Grant opted for a rack of lamb that appeared moist and tender pink, with Dale going once more for a good slab of kangaroo with a native berry sauce. Our final meal was one that would have held it's own in any city. The newly opened Purple Shades of Mary not only had an unfathomably campy sounding name but also open-air dining. Owned and managed by Caroline Angel (former GM of the Alice Springs Convention Centre) this restaurant proved efficiently run with attentive staff and featured an interesting and, as we found, moresome range of French-influenced dishes. We began with the best quail we could remember in a long time; big meaty breasts that were wrapped in spinach and coated with a light tempura batter. The ginger and lemon dipping-sauce rounded out the sweetness of the quail with a perfect tang. We'd happily keep returning just for that one entrée alone! Grant followed this with beautifully caramelised twice-cooked shanks of lamb, with a mind-readingly plentiful heap of mashed potato to soak up all those juices. Dale went for a steamed chicken breast, moistly cooked Chinese-style in tea; a vanilla-bean sauce completing the plate. We finished with excellent coffee, being utterly unable to even contemplate an attack on the attractive desert list. Between those three dishes we had found a restaurant that not only did an old favourite wonderfully but were also willing to offer (and conquer, more the point) a few interesting combinations. We cannot recommend it highly enough -- Purple Shades of Mary on the corner of Hartley Street and Gregory Terrace. For bookings, 08 8952 8772. They have a commendable attention to detail, even if they cannot do much about the carpark view on the opposite side. For our later evening watering hole we did end up, several times, at the ubiquitous Bojangles on Todd Street. Banging open the swinging saloon doors; you are soon embedded in, as Lonely Planet so well describes it, 'a nice mix between local rednecks and backpackers'. We had no problem finding a cab for the brief trip across the Todd and home for a well-earned snooze at Desert Palms Resort.

	Explore the rest of Grant & Dale's Outback holiday
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