Every time I come to
Alice Springs my mate Bill finds time to take a day off. He works most Saturdays but today was that day off. Then we have to find somewhere new to go. Have run out of
places having lived here for some years a time ago, but I suggested we go and take another look at
Fish Hole Gorge in the Chewings Range, about 90km west of Alice.
The gorge lies within the West Macdonnell Range National Park and also just outside the Old
Owen Springs pastoral lease which has been taken over by NT Parks and Wildlife. This
gorge also lies in the headwaters of Ellery Creek.
We were surprised to find no locked gates, in fact no gates at all as we made our way along the washed out track. Years ago I had tried to access
Fish Hole but had gotten hung up in the creek on some rocks and after a tirade from the handbrake managed to turn around and limp
home.
This time we found a newer track heading in towards the creek and some fresh human footprints. This track had been obviously put in by the rangers as they had to access the creek to shoot feral cattle still resident in the NP(some smelly dead steers attest to that) . But their vehicle tracks stopped in the creek. My mate Bill went on ahead on foot and reported back via radio that he thought progress was possible. Placement of the wheels in the right spot and desperately trying to miss jagged rocks and wood stakes we made 2km progress up
the gorge in 2 hours.
Then we found a faint track which had obviously been put in by the pastoralists who farmed on the other side of the range. But is has been many years since that track was used. We lost the track several times and had to search hard for it. The GQ sustained a host of new scratches and I will have to do more work on the mudflaps again!
My Raster Maps show a track going through
the gorge but I thought that these tracks must by now be non existent. We made slow progress using Oziexplorer to guide us along the way. The 35km through the scrub and
the gorge and then over the range took 6 hours. There were two open barriers which had been put in by others to stop progress along the track but they are now rusting away. After that we were on easy street taking the track along the base of the range. This track is
well used in
places by the pastoralists and in other
places the track was barely distinct. There are numerous washouts which caught one unawares and some heavy braking was needed on occassions. Along the way we were also able to access
Painter Springs which has two maginificent date palms growing there on the side of a rise. The spring is dry at present but will no doubt flow again when the good rains come.
We accessed the Tanami Road via a bit of cross country as our track had evaporated, about 7km from the Stuart Hwy and from there it was a smooth 28km run back in to the Alice.
Once again the GQ proved to be a capable off roader.
What has surprised me the most is the the good run that I am getting out of my Cooper STT's. I have taken them over some horrific country and they have performed very
well. On one tyre I have decimated the "R" in Discoverer. Funny though, the tyre is white underneath. Thought all tyres were black all over :o)
Tomorrow is clean up day, tighten loose stuff, pack the truck and head for Queensland and
Birdsville on Monday.