East MacDonnell Ranges

Day 2 - East MacDonnell Ranges

Friday, 7 September 2012

Woke up at Trephina Gorge to a very windy morning. PAV couldn't find the billy!! Everything was coated with dust. PAV is paranoid about the stuff, any if any gets in his bed, heaven forbid . Had to chuckle, whilst not nice (the worst is when it is in the eyes) but there is no getting away from it out here. I will only wipe things down when I need to use it. Anyway, we got going on the gorge walk - the other side of the panorama walk, scented flower walk. The breeze kept the heat away, phew, and I had the energy to enjoy it. The photos never do things justice, you can only 'see' it, but when you are there you can 'feel' the place.

Next up a short drive away to John Dawes water holes. An easy walk to begin with up and along the top of the gorge, but then the scrambling started, quite narrow, but interesting rock formations. We eventually found some water holes and then found we had to climb up and out the other side of the gorge, just for a short while, before climbing back down to the car park. Legs holding up so far, thank goodness for The Stick.

Continuing along The Binns Track we turned off at Arltunga and headed out to Ruby Gorge. In the late 1880's someone thought they had found rubies, unfortunately, they eventually turned out to be garnets, much to their disappointment, and to 200 other prospectors who had moved in to " cash in on the find" but a short while later, gold was found in the area, and it was the usual story. It was a 40 km rough track off the main track, then a 5km stretch mostly in a dry creek bed, very soft, but also lots of large rocks to avoid. It took us a good couple of hours to get in, then helped someone to get themselves unwedged off a rock before we could set up for the night. Yea, no wind.

	Looking down into Trephina Creek [Map]		John Hayes Rock Holes [Map]
	John Haye [Map]		Bottom of John Hayes, we have to get up there? [Map]
	Into Ruby Gap [Map]

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