West MacDonnell Ranges Tuesday, 5th July 2011

We head out Larapinta Drive to explore the West Macdonnell Ranges. Firstly we visit Flynn's grave where he and his wife's ashes are interred.

Flynn's Grave

Next onto Simpson's Gap where the scenery and landscape are hard to capture on camera. We are not able to spot any black footed rock wallabies here.
Onto Standley Chasm - very busy with tour buses and therefore elected to keep moving but Angus spots a wallaby high in the rocks.

Hermannsburg Church

Our third stop is at Historic Hermannsburg, the first Aboriginal mission in the Northern Territory. It was first established in 1877 by the Lutheran Church. Also where famous Aboriginal artist Albert Namitjira was born, grew up and learned to paint the ghostly gums against the Finke River backdrop.

Require a permit - Mereenie Tourpass, to travel onto Aboriginal land and enable us to stop at Tyler's Pass for a view of Gosses Bluff.
This is a registered sacred site and is a remarkable ring of rugged hills and  is an ancient meteorite crater caused by a huge comet which slammed into the Earth. Originally  20kms in diameter, over the 14.5million years of weathering it has been reduced to just 5kms wide.
Ormiston Gorge sees us follow a track down by the river. Spot a dingo high in the towering red rock walls. Lots of dead fish again. Too late in the day for rock climbing into the Gorge.
Head back to town and Marie is breath tested in the middle of nowhere, these police officers will be cold tonight and have already started a fire.