Desert Dwellers

Tanami Desert

Halls Creek to Alice Springs
Western Australia to Northern Territory

August 2 to 10, 2019

China Wall, a seam of sub-vertical white quartz rising 6m, transects the landscape just outside Halls Creek. An interesting start to our 1100km Tanami Desert trip. 

Mally ponders this natural phenomenon ...

...then decides it's a good leaning post.

Off we go into the desert. Let's see how interesting I can make this trip!

No more gorgeous gorges or beautiful plunge pools.

Looks like a desert ... 

... complete with delightful sand corrugations.

Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater was our destination the first night. We arrived just on sunset. 

Can you see the slither of moon hovering above the horizon? A beautiful evening.

We survived the night despite Wolfe Creek's movie reputation. Actually the film has nothing to do with a meteorite crater and is spelt Wolf Creek. So we were always going to be safe.

Amazing crater greets us in the morning.
Interesting info about the crater: The meteorite crashed into earth 300,000 years ago weighing more than 50,000 tonnes. It made a hole 120m deep! We wondered why Earth hadn't been knocked out of its orbit. The crater has since filled with sand and is now just 20m deep.  

Garry and I needed petrol so called into the community of Billiluna to fill up. 

An altercation broke out while we were filling up, with cars doing wheelies, dust flying, dogs biting tyres, people yelling and punches being thrown. It was mayhem. We buckled up and took off.

Calmer locals observe our passage through the desert ...

... including a cohort of wild camels.

The road was littered with casualties - car casualties.  

After a while we started to regard them as artistic installations. 

Definitely an installation. Pointing to the Balgo art centre.

We would have loved to know the story behind each abandoned vehicle.
Who were the people, where were they were coming from and going to, what became of them?

We had been tracking a car with a flat tyre for about 20km and wondered if we had finally found it.
Ian and Garry checking it out.
It wasn't the one with the flat as it had four burnt tyres and all rims were intact. What happened?

Crossing back into the Northern Territory.

Ian collecting firewood for our camp fire.

Another day on the desert road, another day of taping up.
We ran tape around all Myrtle's joins in a vain attempt to keep the dust out. 

Ian stopping to take a photo ...

... fat termite mounds were his subject.

Our final camp spot in the Tanami was at Mount Doreen Station, a former wolfram (tungsten) mine and cattle station. Abandoned now. 

Interesting light in these pics ...

It was fascinating to wander among the ruins and imagine the industry and activity 60-70 years ago. 

Mt Doreen is just behind this building, riddled with mine shafts and tailings.

There was a dam nearby where many finches, doves and parrots came to drink. 

And then a pair of black-breasted buzzards arrived.

Magnificent birds.

Having a drink ...

... then taking their leave.

It may be a desert but the plants adapt and we discovered many delicate, pretty flowers. 

A selection Mally and I collected one lunch time. 

We made it to Alice Springs after four dusty, dirty, rough days. 

A dawn hot-air balloon ride was guaranteed to blow the grime away.

Ready for take-off. Jen, Ian and Mally.
(Sadly, Garry was feeling unwell so didn't come along for the ride)

East MacDonnell Ranges in the distance.

Sun just popping it's head up as we floated over the plain.

No smoking, just fire!

A smooth landing ...

... and time to deflate the monster balloon.

As is tradition, we had a glass of champagne on landing unaware cheeky tour guide Lehi was in the background.

Mally and Ian have now headed into the Simpson Desert. We can't follow as it's all sand. Myrtle would bog quick smart. 

We've travelled together for five weeks and seen some amazing "stuff".

Bye bye Mally. Stay safe. A bit sad we had to part ways.

The West MacDonnell Ranges were beckoning. We had camped at Ormiston Gorge and explored part of the ranges on a previous visit but hadn't made it to Hermannsberg and Palm Valley. 

Hermannsberg was the first Aboriginal mission in the Northern Territory, established by the Lutheran Church in 1877. Many of the original buildings have been preserved and now tell its story.

The original Lutheran church.

I'm no fan of missions  but this one was a bit different in that several pastors took the time to learn the Aranda language and record the culture of the Aranda and Loritja tribes. They also resisted attempts to remove Aboriginal children from their families. The land has now been returned to the traditional owners.

This is Albert Namatjira country. His paintings are beautifully reflected in this stunning landscape.

We didn't realise how bad the road into Palm Valley was until we were well along the way.  

We finally gave up and walked the last 1.5kms. 

The Finke Gorge was very beautiful when we got there.

Home of the rare red cabbage palm.

Ancient Cycads

Some random shots of the towering red cliffs on our way back out.

That's all for now. 

We've had enough of the rough stuff so will stick to the black top for a while:)

Hoo roo to you too.