2 - OODNADATTA TO ALICE SPRINGS

After leaving Oodnadatta we took a leisurely trip up to Dalhousie Springs where we found  a very busy but not full camping area.  After setting up camp, we headed down to the hot springs pool for a “swim”.  It was a beautiful setting with lots of green everywhere – an oasis in the desert.

Unfortunately because we went down for a swim I didn’t take the camera and forgot to go back for a photo – but it’s one of those places that feature on the travel literature, so I’m sure there are lots of good professional photos out there somewhere.

It was nice enough, but the water was quite hot and I couldn’t stay in long, spent more time sitting on the steps that actually in the water.  There are loads of tiny fish that keep nibbling at you which gets a bit annoying after a while. We had planned to stay there a couple of night but that night decided we’d rather move on, and so next morning we packed up and moved on to Chambers Pillar.

By contrast the camping area was lovely and peaceful, even though there were plenty of people there, so we stayed two nights there instead.  Spent the day doing the walk around the pillar at a leisurely pace, then went back to the observation area for sunset.  We had different “neighbours” both nights, but had enjoyable social evenings around the camp fire both nights.  On the second morning we made the effort to be up to watch the sunrise on the rock, and the changing colours – similar but different to the sunset the previous evening.

On Monday we meandered our way out via a stock route to the highway and turned down to Hanbury Meteorite Craters, where we’d planned to camp for the night.  After doing the walk and seeing all there was to see (very interesting) we decided it was still early and the camping area was fairly uninteresting and bleak looking, so we decided to have a look at  Rainbow Valley instead.

This proved to be a good move – much nicer camping ground, and arrived in plenty of time to do the walk, then found that the effect of the setting sun on the mutli-coloured cliff face was absolutely spectacular – much better than Chambers Pillar and other similar places we’d been to.

We had a quiet night on our own.  Two other vehicles were there but chose to camp some distance away.  From the sound of the voices in the distance they were probably European “backpackers”.

By now it was time to stop off in “civilisation” again, get cleaned up, wash some clothes and stock up the groceries etc, so we booked into a caravan park in Alice Springs for the next two nights.  Having been here quite a number of times we didn’t bother with any of the tourist attractions in town, just got on with business and ready to head out into the bush again.