Day 17 - Watarrka National Park

Tuesday, 15 June 2021

Destination: Alice Springs, via the Stuart Highway, 450 kms, with an eye for an overnight around 60 kms south of the outback town.

But wait. Studying the map as we drive across the bitumen Lasseter Highway away from Uluru, I see an alternative. Watarrka National Park sits west of the Stuart Highway, on a lesser known road north, the Luritja Rd., paved for 200 kms up to Kings Canyon. Google Images make it look worth a visit. We turn left on the Red Centre Way.

After a ride through the pretty park-like scenery of the Finke bioregion, the George Gill Range joins us on the right heading northwest into the park. The Info sign at the entrance shows the various walks you can take to get in amongst the gorges. We stop at Kathleen Spring, first turn-out on the right, and take the lovely flat 1.2 km hike into the gorge which ends at a shady water pool. Another sacred spot for the indigenous community and we’re asked not to swim. It’s the home of the rainbow serpent and if we disturb him (her?), he may take off. Which would have dire consequences for the local region. We sit on the bench and take in the freshness. Watch the finches and budgerigars flit and swoon.

The only camping options are at the Kings Canyon Resort, another 60 kms north. We’ve had enough of that genre for now so we turn back south, find a track heading towards the range, 10 kms or so outside the park entrance. Another nice spot used by intrepid campers.

Back to the same old: drink beer, eat dinner, watch the earth’s shadow bend overhead, the stars alight. Happy for the return of darkness and silence.

The ancient Egyptians called the planets the Wanderers because they were the only things (other than the moon) that weren’t fixed in the sky as they gazed upward every night. I like that. They didn’t know about planets, only that half a dozen of those thousands (millions?) of white spots blinking in the sky at night wandered about, doing their own thing -- a bit like intrepid campers.

Mars has been wandering about of late. He started off, early in the trip, fully lined up with two stars about the same size and brightness in the western sky. His two buddies have stayed put, but Mars has wandered off, higher in the sky and a bit to the right (north). Venus must be wandering too – it’s in her nature as a planet after all – but it’s harder to discern. She’s always there, flaming in the west just after sundown. Same with Jupiter and his mate, Saturn. If we get up early enough we can see them, straight overhead before the rising dawn dims them.

I don’t know much about the sky -- a few constellations, star clusters, the Magallenic Clouds, big and small, and of course the Milky Way. But I have an affinity for the Wanderers.