I thought we were supposed to be in desert country, but it's not my idea of desert. There is so much green vegetation - grasses, bushes, trees - and some lovely purple flowers. Contrast this with the rich red and brown hues in the rocky hills and the result is quite spectacular. I tried to take a photo of the drive, but it really doesn't do it justice.....
Here is a shot Mike took that shows the different rock and bandings that you see.....
We checked out a couple of camping spots - the Glen Helen Gorge caravan park (commercial and "cheek to jowl") and the Ormiston Gorge campground (nice national park campground, but quite popular and touristy). We ended up in the 2 Mile 4WD campground which is a free camp (no facilities) in the sandy river bed of the Finke River. We found a spot under a stunning flowering ghost gum right on a waterhole. There is a whistling kyte's nest in the tree and when we came in there was a dingo drinking at the waterhole. We knew we had to stay.
This is the camp site taken from the other side of the river.....
It's only about 1km off the main road down a sandy but easy 4WD track, so we'll base ourselves here for about 3 days and explore the gorges and other places of interest from here.
We had our first fire of the trip here. We had to stop and scavenge some wire to make a toaster.....
Here is the master sculptor with his handiwork.....
And here is the end result.....
We got up early one morning and went for a walk on the other side of the river. We stumbled across the Larapinta Trail so we can now say we have walked it - well 1km of the 230km at least!
Mount Sonder.....
Looking back down the river.....
Going through a hole in the rock.....
Here's a shot of the same hole taken from just in front of our camp site, with some shags watching on.....
Mount Sonder again.....
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