Good Morning Alice!
Low 11°c (52°F) – High 25°c
(77°F)
A bit of drama in the wee hours of the morning with Kitty
needing to go out at about 2.00am and on coming back inside and being lifted
onto the bed, she obviously was quite disoriented and walked right off the side
and into the wall. Poor possum – not a good
way to start the day. Needless to say
after all that I was wide awake and ended up getting up for a couple of hours
rather than just lie in bed. So no early
morning photos for me this morning – I was so tired I had a well earned sleep
in.
Given we are leaving Alice tomorrow I thought I would take
the opportunity to do another wash since it will likely be Darwin before we
have good access to water again and that will be another 7 days away. After getting washing done and hung out we
grabbed a bite to eat for lunch and headed out, a lot later than expected, to
the West Macdonnell ranges.
This area is magnificent with its rugged ranges and so many
points to stop off and look at the various features including some of the
wildflowers starting to bloom. We
stopped in at Simpson Gap and Standley Chasm which we had visited in the
past. Standley is a strange little place
that is quite unexpected with a café, camping ground and strange carpark which
is actually part of the camping area.
Dozens of little one and two man tents line the edge of the car
park. It was quite busy again as it was
on our first visit a few years ago – once again we didn’t stop.
We had intended to drive out to Hermannsburg but given we had
left so late and made quite a few stops along the way we actually ended up
turning around and heading home as we would have been too late if we had kept
going. I must admit the defacing of the
road sign was a bit of an indication that tensions are obviously elevated at
the moment and as luck would have it on our return to the caravan park we
learned of another tourist’s car having had rocks thrown at it in Hermannsburg
earlier in the day so probably it was just as well we didn’t venture
further.
Hermannsburg, also known as Ntaria, is an Aboriginal community in
Ljirapinta Ward of the MacDonnell Shire in the Northern Territory of Australia,
125 kilometres; west southwest of Alice Springs, in the traditional lands of
the Western Arrarnta people and is famous as the home of Aboriginal landscape
watercolour artist Albert Namatjira. The
community was first established as a Lutheran mission in the 1880s and was one
of Central Australia’s first settlements. Hermannsburg was the German name
chosen by the Lutheran pastors who set up the small mission for the Arrernte
Aboriginal people here in the 1880s. The
mission land was handed back to its traditional owners in 1982.
We both feel sad and concerned for the situation and
understand on some level the frustrations of the aboriginal communities. It shocks us at times to see and hear the
ignorance and unwillingness of some to recognize and acknowledge the
traditional owners. It is encouraging to
see more and more of the sacred areas being identified on signs in the traditional
language and the European names given to them taking a secondary position,
perhaps only a small step to reconciliation at this stage.
Our return to the caravan park after a quick stop off to top
up on some groceries was met with a spectacular sunset, a fitting farewell to
this gorgeous city that we’ve once again enjoyed spending time here.
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