Day: 077
Date: Wednesday, 16 September 2020
Start: Alice Springs
Finish: Ellery Creek Big Hole
Daily Kilometres: 124 (click for Julie's Strava and photos, and here and here for our walks)
Total Kilometres: 7967
Weather: Very warm, mostly overcast and breezy
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Ham salad subs
Lunch: Ham salad sandwich/Chicken salad sandwich
Dinner: Lamb fettucine/Moroccan lamb
Aches: Julie has a cut knee (see below)
Highlight: Our early morning ride along the 20km bike path from Alice Springs to Simpsons Gap was superb. The path followed a winding and undulating route that was exhilarating to ride and passed through almost park-like desert country with red soil, rocky outcrops, spindly trees and ghost gums. This was all against a backdrop of the craggy red/orange bluffs and mountains of the West MacDonnell Range illuminated by the sun rising behind us.
Lowlight: Julie had a nasty fall when she got a foot caught as we were setting off after an afternoon break and fell heavily on her right knee on the rough bitumen road with the weight of the fully-loaded bike on top of her. Ouch!
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We left Alice at 6:30am, pedalling west out of town as the early commuters were heading the other direction. At the edge of town, near the Desert Park where we attended the Parrtjima Festival last night, the bike path we had been following headed away from the road and through the desert to Simpsons Gap in what turned out to be an awesome ride (see above).
Simpsons Gap was a sheer-sided cleft in the high mountain range with a beautiful pool at the base. We parked and locked our bikes and took the short return walk to the pool which was at the end of the sandy dry river bed.
Back on our bikes, we rode 40km further west to Standley Chasm, another narrow cleft in the mountain range. This was on property owned by the local aborigines and there was a small charge to walk into the chasm, as well as a nice cafe at the entrance. On arrival we bought a cold drink and ice-cream, which we consumed on the cafe's verandah, and our entrance tickets for the short walk. The chasm was awesome with towering red rock cliffs dominating the shaded dry narrow gap. Clouds had moved in, confounding a number of people, including a film crew, waiting to photograph the chasm when it was illuminated by the sun. We also waited for a little while, but the sun seemed unlikely to break through and we returned to the cafe, where we bought and ate an early lunch, knowing this will be the last shop we see for four days.
We left Standley Chasm at 12:30pm for our final destination for the day, Ellery Creek Big Hole, 60km away. It was another beautiful ride through desert country on a quiet road with mountains on both sides, and despite some undulations and occasional headwinds was easy riding. We reached the National Park campground a little before 4pm and put up our tent in the middle of a circle of other car campers. There were a few benches to make our life easier, and a few of our fellow campers have since wandered over to chat to us about our ride.
Before dinner, we walked the short distance to the Big Hole, which was an attractive large pool in another cleft in the mountains. I took the opportunity for a full-immersion swim, though the water was cold, to wash off the day's dust and sweat, while Julie ventured in a little way. We finished dinner while it was still light and then adjourned to our tent as darkness set in for an early night after an excellent day. No internet access tonight, and uncertain access for the next week, so not sure when this and the next few blog updates will get posted.