Ormiston Gorge

We headed off for the Ghost Gum loop walk mid morning in the howling wind, after being woken to loud gusty winds rocking the van. A quick 20min walk to the lookout looking over the swimming hole, where we met a lovely older couple from Toowoomba traveling NT for 11 weeks. They were very complementary of the kids' efforts walking up the steep climb and provided jelly beans. (Later back at camp they brought homemade dried pineapple around to us as they heard the kids were fans). We continued the loop walk down an ambling track which led us to the bottom of the gorge and more water stunning waterholes and views up the gorge. From there we rock hopped back along the gorge to our waterhole from yesterday, looking back up at the lookout from earlier. We took a well deserved swim and ate lunch, chatting with another family with 3 little kids between 2-5 living in Hermansburg, with the wife teaching in the school there since the beginning of the year. There was also another group of older walkers swimming nearby, who told us they were completing 5 days along the Larapinta, escorted and catered.

Icecreams and iceypoles back at the van, and a quiet late afternoon of bike riding and dominoes. We shared the outdoor table with another older couple from Sale who were traveling about in a tent on this trip, who also offered the kids jellybeans.

Monday we were due to leave our campsite at Ormiston but decided it would be easier to stay one more night here rather than finding a free camp while we continued to explore the gorges out this way. We've got no reception out here, so we benefitted from the generosity of our neighbours from Wangaratta in a 5th wheeler (built by the husband himself over several years, incredible!) by hotspotting from their phone to book another night out here. With that sorted we headed off just on 9am to Redbank Gorge, where we walked out to another water hole along a sandy, rocky riverbed track that in the wet season would be totally under water. No swimming here though, a bit cold, but a beautiful view down through the gorge. Despite it being labeled a family friendly walk it was pretty hard going for the kids and took us longer than anticipated and the temp was in the low 30s today, so everyone was pretty exhausted by the end.

On the way back to camp for lunch we stopped off at the Mt Sonder lookout which gave us an awesome view of the Finke river in the valley below. We'd considered staying in the camp along the river here but decided to avoid the soft sand in case we couldn't get back out. Here we met another older couple and their friend, all experienced 4WDers, who were extremely friendly and chatty, and these guys offered the kids biscuits too - Seems to be a theme, maybe we don't need to buy snacks anymore but can rely on friendly strangers to ply the kids with treats?!

After lunch we headed back out to check out Ellery Creek, which we had seen so many others rave about and rate as their top swimming hole out this way. It was a lovely big swimming hole in a beautiful setting in the gorge, but I've got to say it was a bit underwhelming from a swimming perspective, and there wasn't a lot of sand or bank to sit on or for the kids to play - and the water was freezing! But the kids made the most of it and paddled and built sandcastles, and we happened to be there for the finish of a 4 day running event, Run Larapinta, with some doing 80kms and others up to 130kms of the Larapinta trail over the course of the event. There were many tired but happy faces from runners enjoying a sit and a cool down in the water. We also met some walkers doing the complete Larapinta walk, at their half way point. One was a provisional psych who'd done an internship in Alice Springs and was keen to talk about his PhD topic of institutional betrayal in the military - heavy for a Monday afternoon! Back to camp for dinner and a much needed early night - evidenced by the number of big feelings in the car on the way back home (the kids, obviously 🤣)Read more