WEDNESDAY 12/06/13 - GEMTREE TO ALICE SPRINGS [ VIA BINNS TRACK]

 We had a fairly sleepless night unfortunately.  The wind blew up very strongly and the tent flapped about since we hadn't put guy ropes on the fly.  The verandah caught the wind and lifted and the tent pole clattered to the ground.  Michael felt that he had to get up and do something about it.  He tied the verandah down which stopped the problem, but were well awake by this time.  A little later he decided to move the car into the wind's path, this seemed to settle things a bit.

We decided to return to Alice Springs via the outback route rather than back down the highway on the tar.

We left around 9.15am  and were very glad of this decision, because the terrain was so diverse and interesting - many  rugged mountain ranges, valley floors, dried up river beds, plants in flowers and wildlife - kangaroos, dingoes, eagles and birds, as well as cattle.  Some spectacular scenery, you can see how old Australia really is when you see the great piles of weathered rocks forming mountain ranges.


At one stage we took a side road that was in better condition than the main road, due to recent grading in readiness for the cattle roadtrains.  We finished up in an area where cattle were being mustered and were redirected back onto the track which linked backup to the main road.....all part of the adventure.  To allay worries, we weren't lost, we had the GPS on and knew that we had strayed.  It was obvious that the road we were on looped back to the main track.

We were constantly stopping for photos and around lunch time came across a historical gold mining village of Arltunga.  It is in the middle of nowhere and has this impressive Visitor Centre with videos of the areas history.  We met some other travellers there who indicated we should go back and see the old township.  We took them up and spent time wandering around the old township and taking photos of the old stone buildings and the Government operated battery. (Dot) Photos are a disappointment, the light was so  bright that the colours seem washed out.  I should have used the Nikon, still I can play around later and 'fix' them.

Continuing on we came into the back of the East MacDonnell Ranges and saw a series of Gaps/Gorges  and other geological formations.   The colours in the rock formations is so bright and vivid especially when the sun is shining directly onto it.  By this stage we were back on the tar of the Ross River Higway.   The bulk of the unmade roads we were on were defined as 4wd only, but apart from some corrugated areas a normal vehicle would have handled this provided it was not excessively wet.

We finally arrived in Alice Springs around 4.30pm. and settled into our Motel.

We were in a bed and sleep came easily for me after a few sleepless nights on the mat on the ground.