“Look!! Someone dripped some paint on that bird.” our neighbours recalled her thoughts when they first encountered the Great Bower bird. The conspicuous pink bludge or nape standing out like a veggie burger at a butchers. Julie and I found this bird and its collection of white shells and green broken glass in a nest close to Standley Chasm.
Most of their life these feisty
birds or Chlamydera Nuchalis are busy all year round with either building a nest (males) or raise their
young on their own (females), Bower Birds are renown for being able to copy
sounds like cats, power tools, squeaky doors, ringtones of phones and other bird calls. The loud screeching male we stumbled
on was building its nest, continuously moving stuff around and definitely wanted
us to vamoose.
Saturday 23 July 2016
The rest day was an absolute
necessity by the time I got to the Chasm. After a seriously amusing chat and coffee
with the man of the law at the chasm kiosk, Jules and I drove to a four-wheel drive accessible part of the Hugh River, a free
campsite around twenty kms away. Here I could stick my blistered feet up
in the air and was treated like a king all day - sitting on a camping chair
instead of rocks - pure bliss!!!
We
were all by ourselves in a vast open space - a fire in the creek bed - ripper sunset and sunrise - awesome tranquillity - no walking.
Sunday 24 July 2016
Section 3: Standley Chasm to Jay
Creek
Section 3 is a 13.6km section.
This section is a challenging walk through some of the
steepest and most rugged country in the ranges. The low route is available to
those with an average level of fitness.
We returned back to Standley Chasm and paid our $12
entry fee to view the steep crevasse in the red granite (northern territorians
only pay $1).
Called Angkerle by the Aborigines, the
Chasms European name honours Mrs Ida Standley who, in 1914, became the first
school teacher in Alice Springs.
 |
| Mrs Ida Standley |
In 1925 the school for children of Aboriginal descent was moved from Alice Springs to Jay Creek [Iwupataka] with Mrs Standley as matron.
It was during her
time at Jay Creek that she became the first non-Aboriginal woman to visit the
feature that now bears her name.
Information
taken from the Standley Chasm website
 |
| A lovely short walk to the chasm |
 |
| The chasm |
I found the Melbournian walking group having a rest on top
of Gastrolobium Saddle and had my morning tea with them.  |
| What I saw when I looked away from those stairs |
 |
| The Melbournian hiking group setting off from Gastrolobium Saddle |
The track funnelled through a narrow gorge with massive rocks that needed jumping and climbing. Here I overtook a middle-aged lady whom appeared to be struggling. I was glad to see she had someone looking after her when I met a young guy called Grant down the track.
 |
| A bit of canyoning...... |
 |
| A bit of climbing.... |
 |
| A bit of abseiling without rope |
When, finally, the rocky creek bed had been stumbled over and hiking became easier on an undulating dusty track, I saw my friendly, wandering attorney wave at me as he disappeared up a hill. Hunger time demanded for me to sit down for lunch and I found the Millers campsite a good spot to rest. Ten minutes later I heard a voice from above calling out. “Marcel, are you still there?” I replied in the affirmative. “I am a bit lost” came the voice from above again. A couple of minutes later I heard "I will wait until you have finished your lunch so you can show me where the track is”. This is when I realised the man of the law may well be in a spot of bother and walked to the place where I last saw him. It must be said, in defence of my lawyer, that the turn off is one of those this can't be the right way; therefore, I am ignoring it turn offs. Getting lost at this spot is merely an inescapable verdict. I called him back to where I was standing with a cuppa soup in hand and heard him battle with the spinifex on his way down. He thanked me for getting him back on track and we both had a bit of a laugh about it.
 |
| Some of the rare flowers of the Larapinta trail |
Some time later in the day I caught up with the notary and I judged him to be great company as we meandered along side of some amazing waterholes of Jay Creek in the late afternoon. I noticed how he tapped every Larapinta trail sign with his hiking stick, as if to acknowledge that at this moment he was relieved to be on the right trial.
We arrived at the Jay Creek hut where the first question I was asked by an
older gentleman was had my sleeping bag dried up?
The story of the accidental dipping of my bag in the Hugh River five days ago travelling
the Larapinta grapevine faster than I could walk.
There was something wrong (acknowledged by Roz and John)
with the atmosphere in the busy shelter - lots of awkward silences. I didn’t think
anything of it untill a pale looking man called Alex lit up a bong in the
middle of the hut. To this day I cannot understand why you would smoke marihuana
in front of eight complete strangers. What I would not be surprised about is if
the police were waiting for him at Ellery Creek to pull him off the track. You
noticed how a minor story like my wet backpack did the rounds on the trail?
It is true, dear reader, the world is full of a huge diversity
of people. It sure makes for an exciting and interesting life.
I camped well away from the hut that night.
Grey Bits
Believe it or not but Standley Chasm Resort owns the only free washing
machine on the Larapinta for hikers. The shower was somewhat dribbly but I was
certainly not complaining.
http://www.standleychasm.com.au/about-standley-chasm
No comments:
Post a Comment