Wednesday, 9th June
We had a big day today with an organised tour to Palm Valley. It was out of bed very early this morning (grumbles from some about it still being dark at 5.30am!) before we were picked up at the gates of the caravan park. We were the second to be collected and then were driven around the back streets of Alice Springs to a variety of accommodation places until we had our full compliment of 15 passengers. One gets a very different perspective of a town when sitting in a bus on the back of a truck!
We had initially planned on driving to Hermannsburg but decided to undertake the trip to Palm Valley instead, as this would also call into Hermannsburg and we didn’t want to take the Pajero to Palm Valley. On the approach to Hermannsburg for a pit stop on the way to Palm Valley, we were told NOT to take any photos of the community – we could only take photos of the Lutheran mission buildings.
We left the mission at 9.45 am for the 22 km drive to Palm Valley – this ended up taking 2 ½ hours! I asked to sit beside the driver due to a slight touch of car sickness (Cat promptly decided he wasn’t feeling well and needed to sit up front too) and this helped a lot. Also let me see just what condition the road was in! The road was sooooo rough (thank goodness the grader had just been through!!!) and corrugated to begin with, then we drove along the Finke River bed which was either pure sand, pure rock or either of these and water. Very slow going, picking our way around and over the rocks. We stopped to walk to the top of a hill to a lookout over the valley and a campground. Back down the hill and on to the picnic ground (as opposed to the campground) for morning tea at 11.00 am. There were actually flushing toilets at this picnic ground – unbelievable! It was after this that the sun slowly disappeared behind high clouds and the temperature dropped.
Back in the truck/bus, through more sand and water, over more rocks until we came to Cycad Valley, the only place that these particular cycads grow. We stopped for some photo opportunities and a closer look at the ancient trees and cycads before undertaking the worst part of the “road.” Palm Valley is the only home of the red cabbage palms, which look like ordinary palms when fully grown, but are a beautiful red when young. The palms grow for about a kilometre along the Finke River and because of the sandstone cliffs, there is always water present in this stretch of the river. Quite a spectacular area, with the red cliffs, palm trees, sand and water – all in the middle of the desert.
Back into the bus for the return to Hermannsburg and lunch – the drive out was no better than the drive in! Arrived back at the mission about 2.30 pm and couldn’t have lunch until we had watched a video on the early life of Albert Namitjira, who was born at the Hermannsburg mission in 1902. The extremely well-cooked quiche we received at 3.00 pm (for lunch) was very welcome!!! Following lunch, we had half an hour to wander around the compound and look at the old stone buildings which remain. We were very glad that we had taken the tour to Palm Valley and not just driven to Hermannsburg ourselves – we would have been very disappointed.
The drive back to Alice Springs was very quiet – nearly everyone fell asleep.
We had a big day today with an organised tour to Palm Valley. It was out of bed very early this morning (grumbles from some about it still being dark at 5.30am!) before we were picked up at the gates of the caravan park. We were the second to be collected and then were driven around the back streets of Alice Springs to a variety of accommodation places until we had our full compliment of 15 passengers. One gets a very different perspective of a town when sitting in a bus on the back of a truck!
We had initially planned on driving to Hermannsburg but decided to undertake the trip to Palm Valley instead, as this would also call into Hermannsburg and we didn’t want to take the Pajero to Palm Valley. On the approach to Hermannsburg for a pit stop on the way to Palm Valley, we were told NOT to take any photos of the community – we could only take photos of the Lutheran mission buildings.
We left the mission at 9.45 am for the 22 km drive to Palm Valley – this ended up taking 2 ½ hours! I asked to sit beside the driver due to a slight touch of car sickness (Cat promptly decided he wasn’t feeling well and needed to sit up front too) and this helped a lot. Also let me see just what condition the road was in! The road was sooooo rough (thank goodness the grader had just been through!!!) and corrugated to begin with, then we drove along the Finke River bed which was either pure sand, pure rock or either of these and water. Very slow going, picking our way around and over the rocks. We stopped to walk to the top of a hill to a lookout over the valley and a campground. Back down the hill and on to the picnic ground (as opposed to the campground) for morning tea at 11.00 am. There were actually flushing toilets at this picnic ground – unbelievable! It was after this that the sun slowly disappeared behind high clouds and the temperature dropped.
Back in the truck/bus, through more sand and water, over more rocks until we came to Cycad Valley, the only place that these particular cycads grow. We stopped for some photo opportunities and a closer look at the ancient trees and cycads before undertaking the worst part of the “road.” Palm Valley is the only home of the red cabbage palms, which look like ordinary palms when fully grown, but are a beautiful red when young. The palms grow for about a kilometre along the Finke River and because of the sandstone cliffs, there is always water present in this stretch of the river. Quite a spectacular area, with the red cliffs, palm trees, sand and water – all in the middle of the desert.
Back into the bus for the return to Hermannsburg and lunch – the drive out was no better than the drive in! Arrived back at the mission about 2.30 pm and couldn’t have lunch until we had watched a video on the early life of Albert Namitjira, who was born at the Hermannsburg mission in 1902. The extremely well-cooked quiche we received at 3.00 pm (for lunch) was very welcome!!! Following lunch, we had half an hour to wander around the compound and look at the old stone buildings which remain. We were very glad that we had taken the tour to Palm Valley and not just driven to Hermannsburg ourselves – we would have been very disappointed.
The drive back to Alice Springs was very quiet – nearly everyone fell asleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment