Gary Junction Road – Namatjira Drive – Alice Springs

September 11^th & 12^th

A leisurely start to the morning, not really in any hurry to be anywhere. Left our camp site and continued along Gary Junction Road to Papunya. Known locally as Warumpi, the Aboriginal community of Papunya is about 240km NW from Alice Springs in the MacDonnell Ranges and is home to approximately 400 residents (displaced Aboriginal people mainly from Pintupi and Luritja groups).

Interesting trivia about Papunya - the Warumpi band (Aboriginal rock group) were formed in Papunya and it is the closest town in Australia to the Continental Pole of Inaccessibility (the place on land that is furthest away from the ocean – 920km from the nearest coastline).

Papunya also saw the emergence of ‘dot’ paintings in the 70’s by the senior Indigenous men of the community who were the custodians of the ancestral stories. This has now been called the greatest art movement of the 20^th century. The first artists’ collective, Papunya Tula Artists was set up in 1972 by men from this settlement and was the inspiration and model for many other indigenous artist collectives. Many famous Indigenous artists have come from Papunya. We were keen to stop in at the art centre but it was unfortunately closed.

We did a quick lap of the town and discovered a health centre, a quite large primary school and community store but nothing much to keep us there so we kept on towards Alice passing by Mereenie Bluff and finally hitting the bitumen (haven’t seen any of that for a while) when we turned onto Namatjira Drive.

Namatjira Drive is the tourist drive which takes you through the West MacDonnell Ranges and a number of gorges. We took the turn off to Redbank Gorge first and the drive in was very pretty. The walk to the actual gorge was quite a long one so we decided against doing this. We have done more than our fair share of gorges this trip and given it is really hot we don’t think anyone is going to hold us to account for not visiting every single gorge we pass. Did see an interesting insect when we stopped there which was well worth a photo.

Back on the black top you would think we would be making good time however, this is Grey Nomad country and we seem to manage to get behind every single caravan, camper trailer and Winnebago as they slowly meander along the road. Very frustrating. We stopped into Glen Helen Resort for an ice cream and it was here that we decided our route home. We have been deliberating as we still have two weeks and don’t want to just retrace our steps to get home. Lots of machinations have been occurring and options discussed, most of them involving eventually getting onto more black top and heading east through Queensland. As we sat enjoying our ice cream, we realised we were surrounded by ‘older’ people and realised that most of our home bound travel choices would involve travelling behind more retirees cruising their retirement away. Good for them but not for us just yet – plenty of time for that. And with that in mind we decided to throw caution to the wind and travel home via the Simpson Desert again (west to east). Why the hell not!!! It beat us in 2001 and we are now determined to do this crossing without drama.

With this decision made, we hopped back in the car and motored into Alice via a lovely Aboriginal art place – just a shed in someone’s yard but fabulous jewellery which was a bit different to other stuff I have seen so I did some early Christmas shopping.

                      

In Alice we returned to the hotel we stayed in when we were here with Ryan, Sherran and Joel a couple of months earlier - The Chifley. Nice rooms, reasonably priced, short walk to town and most importantly – a great laundry which we are in dire need of. Checked in for two nights in order to get our ducks in a row in preparation for going bush again.

Spent the afternoon pottering around and then had dinner at the most bizarre place – Monte’s Lounge. It isn't quite a pub and not quite a restaurant and has this whole circus theme happening with strange things hanging from the ceiling but the burgers were highly recommended and that is what we were craving (Stephen a beef one and me a vegetarian one). Not disappointed – excellent food and good beer. Just what the doctor ordered after over a week of remote bush travel.

On our next day in Alice, Stephen did car stuff and I went shopping (managed to buy three dresses in a cool little shop among other things). We met up after a few hours and did a tour of the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) – excellent. Great dynamic history lesson with a hologram of Reverend John Flynn (founder of the RFDS) then a wander through the museum which was extremely well done and very informative. What an incredible service. Having spent weeks in the vastness that is remote and regional Australia we have an even greater appreciation for the work that the RFDS does both in primary health and emergency services. Well worth the visit! www.rfdsalicesprings.com.au

Had to do some grocery shopping before heading out tomorrow and we were interested to find all the aerosol containers locked away in a cabinet. You hear about the social issues in remote Australia but it is when you are confronted with reality checks such as this that it really hits home. Likewise with the alcohol and fuel carrying restrictions in many of the places we have passed through.