Just Keep on travelling: Finke Gorge National Park to Alice Springs

Cycad Gorge, Finke National Park

We stayed at the National Park camping area and on Thursday morning, 22^nd September, we drove the further four kms to Palm Valley. The track continues on from the camping area with clear signs that high clearance 4wd was necessary – we had thought that was the case coming into the park but clearly the road was going to be no better.

The cycad trees

We soon learned – there are rock shelves alternating with gravel and then deep sand. The GPS showed us driving up the river bed. We passed two vehicles that had gone as far as they could and the occupants had parked up the vehicles and walked the balance of the way. It wasn’t hilly just tricky and required a driver with a level of experience.

Cycad trees in Finke National Park

Sand track into Finke National Park

The first gorge we came to was the Cycad gorge. These palms originate from Africa and are shorter than the Red Cabbage Palms found in Palm Valley. The Red Cabbage Palms found in Palm Valley are the only palms growing in natural surroundings in Central Australia. We continued on to Palm Valley and had the choice of two walks – we chose to take the Arankaia Loop which took about an hour. We had been caught the day before by a walk advertised as an hour that took more than two and again the temperature was in the mid thirties. We walked with a young family from Sydney who we have met at another camping area. Katherine and Andrew were travelling with their two children, Zoe and Kerryn. It was interesting to know that they had travelled Cape York with friends who were our neighbours for three days in Weipa – Craig and Ann and their children. There are a lot of people travelling Australia but it is amazing how you meet up with some again along the way. Again we have been surprised by the number of family groups travelling for quite lengthy periods of time.

Zoe and Kerryn took great pleasure in watching out for the orange signs so that we stayed on the correct walk and didn’t follow the blue signs for the two hour walk. The walk initially took us along the riverbank then up the side of the gorge and back along the rim and down to the information centre. The view of the palms was great and it was so unusual to see these trees in this setting. It was one of the most enjoyable walks we have done.

The GPS shows we are driving up the river

Time to walk again

The National Parks are well set up for visitors and on Thursday evening the local ranger came and built a campfire and provided information to the visitors on the park in general covering information on the palms, the wildlife, the management of the park etc. The Northern Territory Government have recently entered into an agreement with the traditional owners that Finke Gorge National Park, along with others, will come under joint management in the very near future. It is hoped that access and facilities in the parks will not deteriorate in the future. There was a lot of discussion concerning the current burning off and the smoke being generated. The rangers do conduct managed burn offs but the current fires are possibly the result of burning by the local people who choose to follow traditional methods. Currently the atmosphere is very smoky which is a shame as it is causing heath issues for some. Finke Gorge National Park currently has one relieving female ranger.

Info about the red cabbage palms

Peter looking at the palms

Friday morning we packed up again and made our way back up the riverbed to the main road into Hermannsburg. With a name like Hermannsburg it sounded as though we were going into a small town. We were soon to find out that this was yet another small Aboriginal settlement with just one general store. We were unable to take any photos of the town as there were signs saying “no photography” and the residential area was closed to anyone but locals. We can only say that this was because they would be embarrassed to have the world know how they live. The houses were very run down and nearly every house had at least one or more car wrecks. Hermannsburg was one of the early Central Australian towns where the Lutheran Mission established in the 1870’s. There is a historic precinct open to the public. Like all Aboriginal settlements there was also mobile and internet coverage which was good for us after four days of no coverage.

Time to walk

We continued on the loop road back towards Alice Springs however we noted that there was a 4wd track into Owen Springs Reserve. This was formerly a cattle station and the road links from the West MacDonnell Ranges loop road through to Stuart Highway. Although the route took us out of our way we decided we will take it and we might set up camp on the riverbed. The track was very similar to the Finke Gorge track. We stopped off at the ruins of the original Owen Springs homestead and also the bronco branding yards. A homestead was originally built in the 1870’s and the original wooden structure was replaced by a rock building early in 1900. There are now only the ruins of that building left.

Amazing rocks Finke National Park

As we passed the Lawrence Gorge we noted a young couple setting up camp – they obviously wanted peace and solitude! We continued on along the sandy riverbank and met up with two female rangers who were on fire watch. The fires were burning on the top of the gorge and they were concerned that they would come down into the park and be out of control. They warned us not to camp in the area due to possible evacuation. With that warning, we continued on through to the Stuart Highway and returned to Alice Springs and collected the caravan from the service provider. We are staying at the Stuart Caravan Park and it is good to be back in the comfort of the van, have power and water on tap – the washing machine has hardly stopped!