Dirk and Joke doing the Half-lap: Day 62: A day among the Eastern Macs (02/08/12)

We nearly did not survive our first night in Alice Springs. Sure, the caravan park was comfortable, the amenities were just great – it was a Big4 park after all, and the price, although making our wallets creak, was survivable. What we had not counted on, was the temperature. Not the daytime 23-24ºC, but the night-time -2.4ºC. We had put in the winter doona, but it was straining to keep us warm. Because of geography, Alice has a very late sunrise, so we just stayed put until there was a promise of warmth in the world outside. Our little heater doing overtime all the while.

It is at moments like these that I contemplate the shortcomings of the pop-top caravan. In very cold weather, its chief shortcoming is simple: a couple of square meters of vinyl in the pop-top bit which have no insulating properties whatsoever. Brrrr! But such is the nature of weather in the Alice that today the differential between minimum and maximum would be 26ºC! So there was a rapid warming happening once the sun stuck its nose above the surrounding mountains. You went to the showers with a coat on, and it was too warm to wear it when you came out.

We had booked in for a single night, but once again we changed our plans. Instead of going down the Larapinta/Namatjira Drives to the Western Macs, we decided to give ourselves a well-earned break, leave the caravan, and drive off to the Eastern Macs instead. So besaid so bedone, as the Dutch would say.

There were several easily reachable spots to visit in the Eastern Macs, all in exchange for a reasonably low number of kilometres: Emily and Jessie Gaps and the Trephina Gorge. Emily Gap came first, only a short distance out of town.

Our first Gap: Emily Gap

There were aboriginal wall paintings here in a shady spot.

"Dikkie toch! What are you doing up there? Come down at once!"

"I ca-can't! I fo-forgot I was scared of heights. Could you ring the fire brigade please?"

Emily Gap

It was our first encounter with the charms of the Macdonnels: the fact that the sugar-loaf shaped string of mountains was cut at various points by rivers draining the higher ground behind them. “Rivers” (or “creeks”) were for us in the dry season no more than sandy, gravelly flat courses, edged by river gums and crossed by more of the ubiquitous floodways. Once again we said to each other more than once: “wow, we’d like to see that when it is in flood!” The cuts are Gaps or Gorges, depending, I suppose on the size. Emily Gap was an amazing introduction to this kind of scenery. The rock strata dip and curve so dramatically, the colours are so vivid, especially against the deep blue sky as a background, and the white-trunked ghost gums give a third contrast.

Jessie Gap embroidered on the theme

Jessie Gap

and after that we pushed on to Trephina Gorge, highly recommended by our friends from Victoria whom we had met at the Devil’s Marbles. At Trephina Gorge we did a round trip – over the cliff and back through the gorge. Once again there was a new stunning vista at every turn. The walk took about 2 hours (because we dawdled) and when we got back we drove back into Alice well sated for the day.