Vikings in Australia - Víkingar í Ástralíu

4^th October

The Glen Helen resort resides under the cliff faces of the Glen Helen Gorge. Thus the view from the camping site in the early morning light is very pretty indeed. It is a fantastic place to have your breakfast, with a view. It certainly beats reading the back of the cereal box!

We headed out and back tracked to an attraction called the Ochre Pits. This is where the Aboriginals obtained the clay they used to ground into fine powder, mix with animal fat and create their painting colours. The soft clay is only exposed in a few places where it is accessible like in this place. The different colours reflect the different iron content of the clay. Ochre Pit is a sacred place and is still used today by the Aboriginals in this area to source their paints. We were warned not to take any or even touch, as it would incur a hefty penalty! So we only left a few footprints and took some photos! The exposed clay is simply fantastic to see and the colour spectrum is magical.

From there we went to the next gorge, which is probably the most spectacular one in the West McDonald Ranges. This is the Ormiston Gorge. This Gorge is quite accessible and also has a rim walk which provides a grand view over the place. You can see how the different layers of rock have been forced together by some immense forces many millions of years ago. The geologist say that one of the two layers has been shifted there from three kilometers away, so something was going on when this occurred! We began by walking the rim walk, which takes you up across the left side of the gorge onto a viewing platform. From there the walk takes you further on the slopes and eventually drops you into the gorge a fair big into it. You then have to walk back via the rocky river bed. The view from the rim walk was just stunning. Of course we had a perfect sunny warm day as almost always here in the red centre! Once we got into the river bed of the gorge, we sat down on the rocks to enjoy the view and rest our weary feet. Then we had to walk along the river bed back. The river bed is sandy in places, but mostly strewn with rocks of all sizes! Towards the end there is a water hole where people swim and/or relax after the walk. We didn’t take our swimmers, so we simply headed for the shop at the car park and chilled out with some ice cream.

We then headed for something called Roma Gorge that was marked on our map. There was no signage when we got to the turn off. We initially went past the turn off as it wasn’t that obvious. It is in a creek bed, so when we turned back we decided to give it a go. The drive in is via an 8km track along a dry creek bed. It’s quite scenic as it weaves it way through the landscape among the low hills and in places with high cliff faces. Towards the end you get to a small visitor car park. Only there do you have some signs and information about the place. Thus it’s not frequently visited and probably missed by most travelers. However, we think it was one of the most interesting gorges we saw. It’s small, but has a lot of petroglyphs that date back thousands of years. These were used by the Aboriginals to tell about the location of water holes, animals etc. Also, some of the signs are ceremonial and have a secret story around it from the dream time. The walk into the gorge is only a couple of hundred meters so it’s not bad at all. As we approached the gorge we immediately noticed petroglyphs on the rocks in the creek bed. They were also on the rock faces on the side of the gorge. In fact, they were all over the place. The number and variety of petroglyphs in Roma Gorge are the best examples that are found in Central Australia. I took lots of photos, so I’ll upload a few of the petroglyphs.

As we were admiring the first petroglyphs as we entered the gorge we were almost run over by a swarm of finches. We then noticed that there were hundreds, if not thousands of the Zebra finches in the few trees that lined the side of the gorge. We then discovered that they were all taking turns at drinking water in a small water hole at the bottom of the gorge. I've never seen so many finches before. In fact, when the swarms of finches came buzzing past, I thought of the horror movie by Hitchcock called "Birds". A pretty chilling thought!! After spending some in Roma Gorge we headed back to the main road.

The last attraction for the day was Redbank Gorge. It’s a short drive from the main road, but the walk into it is about 1.2km long. It’s not an easy walk due to having to walk in sand and having to step over large rocks in the creek bed. At the end the gorge narrows down to a very tight place, plus a pool of water. The red cliff faces are simply stunning in the afternoon sun. The pool of water is quite small, but there is lots of sand around it. Also, growing out of the cliff faces are black and white trees. Very distinct contrast with the red cliff faces. We didn't swim, but sat and enjoyed the scenery for some time. Then it was back to Glen Helen resort to rest our weary bones. For happy hour we went to the bar and sat on the veranda at the rear of the resort. There, they have put a high powered lamp to throw light on the cliff face after dark. This is very much loved by all the moths and other light seeking insects. So, much so that in front of the light is a mesmerizing display of light trails. I've captured a few photos, but even they only show a glimpse of what happens. A spectacular end to a fantastic day!