Aritunga or Arltunga

I went to Artlunga and Ruby Gap in 1985. It was really off the track then.

Hi,
Is this the track called Cattlewood Pass or something similar ? and would you be able to tow a serious offroad van through it.
Regards from Col.

Colin last year the track was a very good and maintained gravel road. Might be different this year?

I might add though we came in via Alice and not the northern route which by the sounds of things may be different.

There are 2 dirt roads that go north to the Plenty H'way (Gemtree) from Arltunga, one a track called Cattlewood Pass has tree branches etc..can make it pretty skinny in places ok for towing a camper, but full width van would get a few scatches. Some do bring vans in from the northern end to an area where they do a bit of fossiking. The other dirt road is Pinnacles Track and is further west and fine for a van we had no problem towing ours thur there in 2004, it's a bit more of a road than the Cattlewood Pass track. Arltunga had a bit of a campground back then, we enjoyed our stay there powered sites. Spent a week at Gemtree, top spot.

Thanks for the info,
It is hard for someone to say a track is ok for towing without knowing their capabilities, but i appreciate your input, slowly i'm putting together peoples opinions so i can then make a better decision on just where to go.
Thanks again,
Col.

You're right we only went as far as Arltunga didn't venture further as we ran out of time and the weather was fairly miserable on the day.

The correct spelling of aboriginal names is an interesting question. It wasn't a written language. Therefore all spelling of aboriginal names is an attempt by Europeans to get something that approximates the aboriginal pronunciation. Central Australian aboriginals use a wider range of sounds, approximating to our (r) sound than we do. They also make a sound somewhere between a t and a d and tend to use it for both of these sounds in English. Hence the large number of variations in European attempts to spell Arrente in central Oz. It also gives a bit of an idea of the problems they have learning English. I really don't think there is such a thing as a correct spelling of Arltunga, they are all just attempts to make a phonetic stab at the aboriginal name.

"The correct spelling of aboriginal names is an interesting question. It wasn't a written language. Therefore all spelling of aboriginal names is an attempt by Europeans to get something that approximates the aboriginal pronunciation. Central Australian aboriginals use a wider range of sounds, approximating to our (r) sound than we do. They also make a sound somewhere between a t and a d and tend to use it for both of these sounds in English. Hence the large number of variations in European attempts to spell Arrente in central Oz. It also gives a bit of an idea of the problems they have learning English. I really don't think there is such a thing as a correct spelling of Arltunga, they are all just attempts to make a phonetic stab at the aboriginal name.">

If that's the case then there are a heck of a lot of publications & road maps around that spell it that way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!