The first day of our actual tour was very busy. Our group of fifty was divided into the reds and the yellows and each group set off in a bus big enough for everyone to have a window seat. Our driver, Roger, a knowledgeable Kiwi who’d been around the Red Centre for many years, was our tour guide as well as driver.
Our first stop was Simpsons Gap (Rungutjirpa), a picturesque spot in the MacDonnell Ranges. Roe Creek created the gap for itself over thousands of years and formed a permanent waterhole, a rare feature in this arid land. As a result, it’s a magnet for wildlife and if you’re lucky, you’ll spot the agile black-footed wallaby bouncing around the rocks.
It’s a pleasant walk on a comfortable track to the waterhole and its pink sand beach.
The little wallabies are hard to pick among the jumble of rocks at the bottom of the cliffs but there were several out there. They’re hard to spot until they move, perfectly camouflaged in their environment. Can you see it?
Our next stop was at Standley Chasm.It is traditionally known as Angkerle Atwatye, meaning the Gap of Water. It’s a rather longer walk than that for Simpsons Gap, following a path next to a spring. It’s a comfortable track most of the way but it gets a bit rocky towards the end as you hop from stone to stone.
Once again, a river has cut its own channel as the land rose around it and the presence of water attracts lots of wildlife.
The chasm itself is dramatic, towering cliffs close together.
There’s a permanent waterhole between the cliffs which only catches the sun for a few minutes a day around noon. The sign reads SACRED LAND DO NOT CLIMB THESE ROCKS TRADITIONAL OWNERS DO NOT PERMIT PUBLIC ACCESS
The English name for the chasm has an interesting story. Ida Standley was Alice Springs’ first school teacher and a passionate supporter of aboriginal children. Racism was rife in the early 1900s. This is an excerpt from an article about Ida’s work.
“The school opened in June 1914 in a timber and iron building with an official attendance of 25 pupils. However, Mrs Standley was soon struck by the neglected condition in which she found the “half-caste” children who hung around the town, and she decided that they should be educated as well. Aboriginal children were admitted to the school. Objections soon came from the whites in the town. This resolute lady stood her ground on the fundamental principle that every child has a right to an education. She negotiated a compromise with the community by teaching the white children in the morning and the Aboriginal in the afternoon.” You can read the whole story here.
Before we returned to the bus a few of us popped into the local café for coffee or an ice cream and were pleasantly surprised at the prices – very good for ‘way out here’.
From there we stopped at Alice Springs’ Desert Park for lunch; plates of fruit and delicious fresh sandwiches and wraps. And then we were treated to an unexpected visit from a couple of the local wildlife who are being rehabilitated at the park.
The first was Kevin. He’s an echidna who was brought to the park as a youngster about 5 years ago, in need of care. They are monotremes, a class of primitive mammals that lay eggs but suckle their young. The only other monotremes are platypus. Echidnas eat termites and tiny ants, using their long tongues to extract the ants from their mounds. They live up to forty years and are sexually mature at around 6 years, so Kevin is a teenager. These animals have very poor eyesight so it’s important that they are returned to where they came from so they can find food. Nobody was sure where Kevin called home, so now he’s a permanent resident here at the Park.
Next to come out was a young black falcon. He’d had some damage to his feathers but was almost ready to return to the wild. His carer gave him a pigeon wing (complete with feathers) to tear apart as he sat on the handler’s glove. We were told black falcons were fast and agile, and in that respect closer to lorikeets and budgerigars than eagles. They mainly hunt birds, striking them with enormous power generated by their speed through the air. They’ve even been known to take sulphur-crested cockatoos, which are bigger than they are.
The handler told us that he does free flying shows with the birds in care and he’s not surprised if one of them decides to ‘self release’ – in other words, doesn’t come back. But many of them stick around because it’s easy. They have reliable food and protection from predators. What’s not to like? The birds are trained with food and reinforcement so that they trust their handlers and if they think it’s time to go, they do.
After lunch we headed back to town for a full afternoon. I’ll tell you about that next time.
This is the third post for this trip. If you missed anything, pick up the whole journey here.
Leave a Reply