0029 KIng's Creek Station to Palm Valley 18th July

After a leisurely pack up, we went in to the reception area to say our farewells and found a small podi calf lying on the door step !  Turns out it was orphaned at birth, and its surrogate mother was the girl working in the shop – so the calf lies on the doorstep until she comes out !!   You want to go in, you step over it !!   And the cockatoo was just free outside, climbing in the trees in the yard !!  A lovely camp site with a difference – Chopper rides over the canyon and quad bike rides if that is your thing.  Well run campsite and interesting property.

20 kms drive into Kings Canyon, where there were all sorts of walks available – Interesting one for me being the Giles Track !!!  Unfortunately that was an all day hike, so we instead opted for a shorter one up into the gorge, and it was superb.  The photos just do not capture the true colours and feeling (as usual) – So you will just have to go there for yourselves.  Take my word for it, it is excellent.  Imposing rock cliffs, the stark white of the gum tree trunks in the dry creek bed accentuated by the red cliffs behind, amazing flowers, including the Holly Grevillia, with prickly holly shaped leaves, and sweet nectar flowers that the Aborigines use as bush tucker – Like a sweet, a treat for the kids, apparently !  Yellow bush wattle flowers, and although we didn’t see any of the raptors in the canyon that day, we see them in the sky as we drive along every day.   As is always the case with these dry creek beds, when you see the amount and height of the flood debris piled up against the trees from the last flood, you can only wonder at the power and depth of the water that sweeps down here not that infrequently, when they have a storm at the head of the gorge.  It must be an awesome sight.

After our walk up the gorge, we drove on to the nearby resort, but found it VERY commercial and were glad we had stayed at the more rural Kings Creek Station the night before.  The reason it is commercial is that it is the last spot on black top road so that all the “soft roaders” and coaches can reach here easily.  Immediately after the resort, it is back to several hundred kms of dirt road, some of it only passable to high ground clearance 4 WD’s.  So as we drove on, it was back on to the dusty, corrugated, and often rough dirt roads. 

Our hopes were raised when we got black top through a delightful little canyon drive with very Elise suitable twisty roads, but after having lunch at the lookout at the top of the hills, about 200 yards later we were back in the dirt !!  Miles and miles of paddy melons beside the road too !!!  And the ant hills were slowly getting taller – At Uluru they were only about 6 inches tall – Now they are getting up to 18 inches.

We then drove for some 200 kms or more with the Gardiner Range on our right, and just mile after mile of dirt road with signs for camels and wild brumbies, although e never saw any camels.  As we headed into Hermannsburg, an Aboriginal town which had been founded by a German Lutheran priest in the 1800’s to help the local tribes people, we finally saw some brumbies playing in a water hole beside the road, and they were having a great time.  We were able to stop and watch them for a while before they ran off.  Hermannsburg is supposed to be of historical significance, so we went in to look around – And found nothing.   A very sad remote aboriginal settlement, with a heavy police presence, rubbish and old cars everywhere, and areas in town where visitors are forbidden to drive.  No alcohol allowed, and even the petrol station serves no fuel after 5.30 pm to help prevent the youth from buying it to inhale.  We went into the supermarket to try to buy some milk,, lettuce and supplies, but the shelves were mostly empty, and what there was did not look very enticing, so we left empty handed.  All very sad. Even the local campsite is terrible, and they lock the gates at night to keep any one brave enough to camp there safe.

So we headed out of town back towards Palm Valley – And the sign said “Palm Valley 18 kms, or 3 hours.  High clearance 4WD’s only”.   3 hours for 18 kms ???

Well, we soon found out they were right !  Driving along the creek bed, large boulders and rocks in the way, the track slowly got worse and worse, and the 14 kms to the campsite did take us well over an hour !!  The remaining 4 kms into Palm Valley we did not do until the next day, but it did take us well over an hour !!  But more on that tomorrow.  Coming into the Finke Gorge National Park, we crossed an electric cattle grid – Never seen one of those before !! And just as the sun we setting we at last reached the bush campground, which was delightful.  

And once we were set up, some guys built a big fire, and the Ranger, who lives nearby, came in and we all sat around the warm fire in our chairs and were treated to the history of the area, and details of what we could expect to see on our walks.  A perfect evening before we turned in – With wild dingoes wandering around the camp looking for scraps of food !!

 

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