by ribuck » Thu 17 May, 2018 8:21 pm
Having done a water carry to Brinkley Bluff, I opted for a short day to Birthday Junction instead of doing another water carry up to Rocky Ridge.
Steve and Kate, a New Zealand couple, arrived later, having started from Alice Springs two days after me. Their finish date is the same as mine, so I guess we'll be seeing each other a bit.
The next day, Steve and Kate walked on to Hugh Gorge Camp (which is after the gorge), but to my mind this is a section to be savoured and I wanted to camp within it. The ruggedness of Spencer Gorge, the vistas revealed at the windy saddles, the view from Rocky Ridge past Fringe Lily Creek and up the long valley to the cliffs at Hugh Gorge Junction ... it's rewarding country.
Camping at Hugh Gorge Junction didn't appeal (too hot and dusty), but a little way upstream I found a fabulous shaded sandbank just big enough for one tent, with a view of cycads, red cliffs, and rocks of all hues in the creekbed.
These amazing rocks - purple, gold, red, green, and white - covered in streaks and dapples and swirls of other colours - are apparently the same rocks that form the rust-red walls of the gorge. Occasional floodwaters are enough to scour the oxides off the surface of the rocks in the creekbed.
I got my water from the permanent waterhole at the top of the gorge. The smaller ponds I passed along the way were stagnant and putrid (cattle), but the big pool was good water.
- Attachments
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![20180506_121209_1526280715965_4.JPG](./download/file.php?id=47284&sid=3d84a6857d77bab85eb6ab6184ef8e3a)
- Occasional dirt stretches make a nice change from rocks
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![20180508_135710_1526280714373_1.JPG](./download/file.php?id=47285&sid=3d84a6857d77bab85eb6ab6184ef8e3a)
- Give me a fly net to protect me from the flies, sunglasses to protect my eyes, and a flapped hat to protect me from the sun, and I'm good to go.
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![20180512_085213_1526280715291_3.JPG](./download/file.php?id=47286&sid=3d84a6857d77bab85eb6ab6184ef8e3a)
- An anthill giving me the finger as I pass by
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![20180507_132532_1526280716741_5.JPG](./download/file.php?id=47287&sid=3d84a6857d77bab85eb6ab6184ef8e3a)
- Is this a Fringe Lily perhaps? Two of them were growing out of the rock face at Fringe Lily Creek.
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![20180507_164439_1526280714839_2.JPG](./download/file.php?id=47288&sid=3d84a6857d77bab85eb6ab6184ef8e3a)
- Looking up from my tent site in Hugh Gorge
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