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May 1, 2007

A boggy adventure with a mate from the 'Frew

So this entry should probably have come before the farewell that precedes it but it will require a lot more recollection and effort, hence I've procrastinated and left it til now.

For around a month, Will and I have been planning a trip to Boggy Hole. I'd heard it was a good 4WD trek and one that was off the beaten path to most tourists. Originally we'd hoped to get a group of 7-10 people together and bring a second vehicle but no one really committed to it so in the end it was Will on his bike and Mike (good mate from the 'Frew) and I in the 'Cruiser.

Mike had to fly back to Sydney before the next weekend so we looked up some flights on Webjet and found that it was actually gonna be cheapest to fly from Yulara (airport at the resort near Uluru) so the plan changed such that Mike and I would continue on to Uluru after Boggy Hole and Will would just loop back to Alice.

We left on Sunday at noon and made our way to Hermannsburg where we left the bitumen (type of pavement) and followed a dirt track 10km where it met up with the Ellery Creek riverbed. This led us south where it met with the Finke river, a currently dry riverbed 250 million years old, with 100 million years spent travelling its current path.

Another 5-7kms down the riverbed we found Boggy Hole. The water level was somewhat low but it did not spoil the beauty of the waterhole. Boggy Hole is one of 6 permanent waterholes that reside in the West MacDonnell ranges. I've been to Glenhelen gorge, Ellery Big Hole and Ormiston Gorge (not having seen Redbank Gorge or the last of the six) and although the swimming was better at most of them, Boggy Hole was definitely more picturesque and secluded. We were the only people for tens of kilometers and only the dingoes rivalled us in our laughter.

The swimming was a little on the cold side and a little manky (fair amount of weeds and muddy bottom) but we had the company of several black swans and a plethora of ducks and other birds.

We cooked up a good feed for the night with snags for entrees and steak sandwiches and an onion/spud mix for mains. Desert was, of course, more of the beer that we'd already beeen drinking. It was a great night under an almost full moon, which as I hinted at earlier was saluted to by many a dingo.

A breakfast of more snags, some eggs and toast was prepared rather sloppily with the help of a scraper/flipper made from the carton of XXXX that we'd almost finished off. Note: if camping with a hot plate or any sort of frying instrument, always remember a spatula of some sort. Attempting to use cardboard as a replacement may alter the taste of certain foods and most likely will result in burnt knuckle hair.

The next part of the trek involved criss-crossing the riverbed a fair bit before finally leaving the Finke Gorge National Park and continuing on through the Tempe Downs Station. The tracks through Tempe Downs were pretty cruisy, dirt tracks allowing us to make up some time and keep up with Will on his bike where previously he'd left us in his trails. The bike floats across the rocks in the creekbeds which demand more care in driving with the 'cruiser.

Once we made it to the Giles Track, Will pumped up his tyres and filled up on petrol. We parted ways and he headed east to the Stuart Highway and we ventured west to the Luritja Highway. This would lead south to the Lasseter which we took out to Uluru/Kata Tjuta National Park.

Once at the park we headed to the campgrounds to see which tourguides were out. Ran into a few that I knew, so we chatted to them before heading to the Rock for a few pictures, visit to the cultural center and eventually sunset. It was nice to have some clouds in the sky for the sunset as my previous visit had been a cloudless day. The photos of Kata Tjuta were spectacular which the clouds feathering the setting sun. Colours I hadn't seen before danced across Uluru before the clouds and setting sun muted them.

That night, we chilled out with some of the guides and their groups before making camp for the night. Having seen so many clouds at sunset, we should not have been surprised when a few drops of rain woke us up just before sunrise. Sacrificing a few minutes sleep for being high and dry turned out to be a good idea as we made it to sunrise to catch a rainbow. We cruised around the Rock and checked out the Mala walk and the Kantju waterhole. Getting up early also provided enough time for us to visit Kata Tjuta before Mike flew out. On the drive out there, it started pouring rain. When we got there, it was far too wet for either of the hikes. We took some nice photos and headed back to Uluru to admire it in the rain.

Since first visiting the Rock and seeing other photos of it, I've always wanted to see it in the rain. I will tell you this; it did not disappoint. The downpour had produced numerous waterfalls that were cascading down the Rock, disappearing into crevasses and reappearing further down only to fill depressions, creating temporary pools that would eventually overflow, producing more waterfalls. It was truly a powerful moment that I was lucky to witness. When parked on the road encircling Uluru, we even witnessed the pool at the top of the Kantju waterhole overflow and the rainwater's first descent into the sacred place below.

After plenty of photos from around Uluru, we headed back to the resort for a quick bite to eat, and I dropped Mike off at the airport to send him on his way to Sydney. I headed east en route to the Stuart highway and the rest of my 4.5h voyage back to Alice Springs. A better 4WD trek/road trip I could not have asked for.

Posted by Dr.Unk at May 1, 2007 7:10 AM

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