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View over Alice Springs, looking south from
Lou and Russell
The Roof
How would you like to be on a sidecar?Palm Valley - and much more! part two
All this was behind us when we hit the dirt. The road is listed as 4WD and it’s almost beyond that in places. While going across one particular ford he relates how another company were doing their first run after the recent floods (they’ve had three this year) and the bus went head first off to the right and was stuck face down. The following bus, being more sensible, went around the left but struck the same fate. Both had to be retrieved.
Palm Valley is unique inasmuch as the red cabbage palms that are there can be found nowhere else in the world. There are around 3,000 plants only. Also featured here are cycads, remnants of an ancient past, but I had already seen quite a few of them at Inarlanga.
On the road in we were mostly doing less than 5 kph and I was dying to stop and get some pics but said nothing until Ann, Ken’s wife, piped up. Naturally enough she had my full support so from then on we hassled poor Ben constantly. However, I was singled out for a warning before the walk that the group was to stick together.
One poor man in our group could hardly see but insisted on doing the half hour walk along the creek bed and up the ridge. Our concern that he shouldn’t be doing it was ill founded as he trundled along 10 minutes later.
Our small group of 7 was diverse. The guy with the poor sight owned 7 horses, another chap’s body had shut down and he was on medication to alleviate the problem and Ken had had a heart attack years ago. What would life bring me I couldn’t help but think.
We then proceeded to Hermannsburg (pic 2), an old Lutheran mission for the blacks that is now an historical tourist attraction. It’s here where Albert Namitjira could be found on occasions though he always maintained his nomadic lifestyle.
There’s a gallery here with art from all the relatives. It’s a sad affair with hardly any of the lights working. Made me wonder why they bother as none are for sale. On the way back our driver put a CD on. It was a Rotary Club talk by a guy called Len Beadell. Here was a man who had been privy to some of Australia’s biggest secrets and had led an unbelievable life in the outback. That would have made it interesting but he had a dry sense of humour that cracked the whole bus up. We were literally crying, funniest things since Monty Python. It’s available at ABC shops. Try it, you’ll like it.
