Tag Archives: world travellers

Day 48 – East MacDonnell Ranges

Obligatory tigerpose at Alice Springs

Obligatory tigerpose at Alice Springs

From our roadside camp in Desert Oaks, we continued further up towards Alice Springs. Distance-wise, we had to cover another 200km to reach Alice Springs.

At a gas station, we had a chance meeting with two other travellers: Georg (worldbiker.info) and Jazek. Georg, at least, has started this part of his journey in Switzerland and, after Australia, there is only New Zealand left to explore. We exchanged blog address and wished each other safe travels as you do. 🙂

We arrived in Alice Springs around lunch time. I was getting warm on the bike (29 degrees) and started disliking cities again because you have to go so slow, when we managed to sit down in the Page 27 Cafe for a lovely lunch and a large chocolate brownie as dessert.

Alice Springs is surely a city that you can explore for a day but we decided to head out again into the East MacDonnell Ranges.

Emily Gap in the East MacDonnell Ranges

Emily Gap in the East MacDonnell Ranges

The MacDonnell Ranges are divided into West and East by Alice Springs itself which lies in a gap of the ranges. The East is the less popular side for daytrips but I had read about Trephina Gorge and wanted to camp there.

Heading east, we first came to Emily Gap which is a natural gap in the region. The local people believe that a giant caterpillar has formed this gap. We skipped Jessie Gap as we thought it would be quite similar and instead stopped at Corroboree Rock. As a formation, it is quite peculiar. Just a freestanding rock with much meaning to the indigenous people. Here, for the first time, the info sign asked tourist to treat the place as they would treat a church.

The last stop was Trephina Gorge itself where we set up camp in the Bluff Campground and so far, we are the only ones here. But there are two more campgrounds in close proximity with people on it.

As the end to the day, we went on a 2km loop walk through the gorge and up on the rim which was amazing. The gorge itself was already in shadow but the higher walls of rock were glowing in the red evening light.