July 3rd-5th, 2011- Howard Point Rest Stop- West MacDonnell Ranges

Sunday July 3rd saw us check out of Wintersun Caravan Park in Alice Springs and travel approximately 100Km West into the West MacDonnell Ranges for a few days of free camping.  Leaving Wintersun was a bit of a challenge because of the tight quarters. We had to move first to allow about 5 or 6 other caravans to exit as well. We found a nice spot at Howard Point Rest Stop. No facilities but a beautiful view and lots of space. We setup for a few days of rest and relaxation. We went for a short drive to Ellery Bighole in the afternoon. It is a beautiful location where many of the locals go for a swim during the hot weather. Unfortunately, there was a large amount of dead fish which closed the swimming down and made the area quite stinky. Stephen and I went searching for dead trees for firewood. We were quite successful and were able to enjoy great fires each night of our stay.

Monday saw us enjoy a day of complete relaxation. No travelling, laundry, shopping or any other work. We enjoyed lots of sun, reading, etc. Terry and Dianne took a drive into the Ranges to see many of the sites that the rest of us saw the week before. They enjoyed the various gorges as we had. previously.

Tuesday I took the 3 ladies for a drive West into the Ranges farther than we had previously explored. Our first stop was at Redbank Gorge where we did a 3 Km walk into the Gorge. It was a relatively short walk but challenging because of the rocks we need to climb over. As usual the walk was well worth it with the Gorge being beautiful. The girls enjoyed the many colours and formations of the various rocks on our journey. We had our lunch at the parking lot when we completed the walk before continuing on our trip.

Our next stop was the Tyler Lookout where we had a great view of Gosse Bluff to the south west. It is quite amazing as is basically comes up in the middle of nowhere. Gosse Bluff was created by a meteor 140 million years ago. Huge!

 We then continued on to a 4WD road where we travelled right into Gosse Bluff. The road took us right through the outer mountains into the interior of the crater created. We did a short walk which culminated with a good climb up to a lookout. Very impressive and of course the colours were amazing again. We enjoyed afternoon tea before packing up and heading back to our camp. Terry and Stephen had been busy getting a good fire going and we enjoyed a wonderful baked Lamb Shank dinner done in the camp ovens. Delicious!