One of the places we wanted to visit here was definitely 4WD only (Palm Valley) and we weren’t sure about some of the others, so we decided to do this area as day trips from AS, rather than take the caravan.

The first day, we drove along Larapinta Drive all the way to Hermannsburg (an early Lutheran mission homestead) and stopped here for a short while to look at the old buildings and take a few photos. We then turned off the main road onto the 4WD track towards Palm Valley. It was about 22km into Palm Valley, but at a slow speed so it took about 40 mins. We got there about 11.30. It was not quite what I had expected. I had thought there would be more palms and a more lush picnic area. Although it was unusual having the palms there, the main landscape was still quite arid desert and there was just a small shelter built with some seats within. There was a 2km loop walk which went along the base of the valley and then up on the cliffs above. We did the walk –  it took about an hour, and we needed regular drinks as it was hot in the middle of the day. We then went back to the car and had lunch and started the drive back out to the main road. We saw a dingo beside the road as we drove out.

We then drove back along Larapinta Drive towards AS as we were planning to go to Standley Chasm and Simpson’s Gap which were the 2 closest ‘features’ to AS. We arrived at Standley Chasm carpark at about 3.00 and had some morning tea before we did the 600m walk in to the chasm. We hadn’t realised that we had to pay to go to the chasm – it was now managed by local aboriginals and they had installed an entrance fee. It was $35 for our family which seemed very steep. Since we were here now, we paid it, but had we known beforehand that it was the only one of the gorges/waterholes/rock features that had an entrance fee, we would have skipped it. Anyway, we walked to the chasm and enjoyed seeing it. There was no water in it at this time of the year.

We decided then it was getting a bit late to do Simpson’s Gap, so we would add that to what we planned to see the next day. We decided to get the lunches and morning tea ready as much as we could that night, so we could get away earlier the next morning.

The second day, we got away about 8.30am. We drove back along Larapinta Drive and stopped at Simpson’s Gap first. It was only a short way out of town, so we were there by just after 9am. It was only a short walk along a paved track to the gap, and it was quite cool because the sun hadn’t reached into the gap yet. There was water right in the gap, but not in the river bed beside the track. It was lovely just to stand and look at the reflections of the tall red cliffs in the water and listen to the bird life. We probably stayed for about 10 mins and then walked back to the car and headed off for the next stop. We drove about 30km further along Larapinta Drive and turned off onto Namatjira Drive which headed further north than we had gone yesterday. Our first stop along here was Ellery Creek Waterhole. Once again a short walk from the car park. This place was probably my favourite out of all of them. It was beautiful. We sat down here in the shade and had some morning tea and the kids played around on the rocks and tree branches for a while. We were the only ones there for the whole half an hour we sat there and it was very relaxing. Then it was time to move on – next was Ormiston Gorge, another 30km further along. This was a longer walk in and it was getting hotter by now – it was around 12noon. The sun was high overhead so there was less shade now. We walked a little way along the gorge which had a smallish amount of water in it. We were there for about half an hour also, but the kids were getting more tired on the walk back. We sat under one of the shade structures at the car park and had lunch. We decided the kids might want to have a swim at the next ‘spot’, which was Glen Helen Gorge. So we drove the 5min drive to that spot and loaded up with swimmers and towels to walk down to the water at the  gorge. This one, I thought was one of the less pretty ones, but the 2 younger girls and Sam were still keen to swim. So Michael, Lauren and I sat in the little bit of shade we could find and watched as the other 3 paddled in the quite cold water for a while. Eventually it was time to walk back to the car – everyone was feeling a bit drained from the heat. There was accommodation and a shop at Glen Helen, so we all got a paddle pop, which perked us up a bit. We decided not to do the last gorge we had thought we might do – Redbank Gorge. I’m sure it would have been beautiful but we had had enough sight-seeing for the day, and we wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much with everyone being tired. So we then headed back towards AS. There was one place we had not stopped at on our way out which we decided to call in on quickly on our way back. That was the Ochre Pits. It was only a few hundred metres in from the main road. It was the area where the local aborigines used to go to gather their ochre for their traditional body paints and so on. Sam was interested in seeing it so we stopped in their briefly. Then it was about an hour’s drive home from there. We got back about 4pm so the kids were able to have a bit of a play at the playground before an early dinner and bed.