We have travelled over 3,500 klms so far.
I came across this rock the shape of Australia, so have put a pebble to show our current location.
The track to the gorge
This morning we woke early and headed off for the Gorge drive.
We spent about 3 hours climbing the gorge to the top of Home Range and walking along the escarpment and down another gorge near the car park.
Start of the walking track Our own car park
No, we’re not wearing gum boots – gaiters for protection against the prickles, Spinifex, snakes etc. They really protect your legs from scratches and no prickles to pick up out of your socks. Spinifex really has a nip to it and there are several other plants like Dead Finish and the native Holly which has really sharp needles.
Views of the Gorge going up
It was very easy climbing as the rocks are fractured in layers like steps.
Once we got to the top of the gorge, there was still more to go to get to the escarpment, it was not too steep and the large stepping stones made it easy.
We headed for a high point and hoped that there was no more ridges to the top and we could get a view to the south.
View back see Gorge left View to the West
There were really great views all round. Home Range is 752m above sea level.
We could see Lake Bennett Escarpment Edge
The wind was blowing fairly strongly along this section and bent Glen’s hat into a pirate hat, along with the gaiters he looked fairly comical.
A nice little Emu Bush flower, I found growing in the second gorge on the way down.
We headed to base camp for lunch
Lakes Tour
Some of these flowers are only found in such a small area in one location.
This very very old Melaleuca tree is at Suzie Lake, other locations where fire has gone through, the trees have been totally destroyed. The park notes say that the Melaleuca do not re-generate after fire. There is no water in these lakes during the dry season. They are slightly saline.
The next salt lake was covered in this field of mauves and grey-green plants.
It is samphire and it loves salty conditions. Samphire also grows by the ocean.
The plant looked like skewered caterpillars to me.
One bird that I haven’t seen before is this “Orange Chat” which was in this saline lake in a sea of purple pea flowers. Being bright yellow/orange, he was fairly easy to spot but hard to photograph.
Out of the thousands of purple flowers, we could see one or two plants that were white. There’s always a renegade who does not want to conform. You can see the white ones even in the picture on the left as well.
The drive ends near a dune viewing point of Lake Bennett.
The ranger came around to collect our fees and has offered up fresh vegetables (broccoli & leeks) from their garden. This place cannot get any better. We met the local school teachers from Yuendumu Community. Dan was kind enough to come over and show us video he had taken at Elizabeth Station in the Kimberley. He has a drone with a camera and his footage was really good. Makes us want to go out and buy a drone – it would save on your legs :) you just fly it to the top of the hill and get the view beamed back to you.
Yuendumu is 103 klms west of Tilmouth Well, but is possibly a little more from here, but it is a couple of hours drive. We probably will not have to head back east to Tilmouth Well, as we have been given information on short cut tracks that will let us head north from here and save heading east to the Tanami and then heading west.
The weekend rush is over, so now it is just us and the other couple from Victoria who are here about the same amount of time. It is interesting talking to the locals to find out that they have come from the east coast and have been here a long time. It seems that once they come, they stay, we can see why because it is pretty special.
Hundreds of Zebra finches come in every day to drink at the water station provided for them.
Some Major Mitchell Cockatoo’s are coming in, we are yet to successfully get a snap of them.
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