Day 4 - Tuesday 26th May

We had breakfast in the hotel bistro at 7:30am. After breakfast, Annie went back to her room for a rest while Suzy, Paul and I drove to Anzac Hill. The weather was surprisingly mild. They were forecasting a maximum of 21C and when we set out at 8:30am, it was overcast and only 11C.

Anzac Hill is a hill on the northern edge of the town centre. At the top, there is a war memorial with a 360 degree view of the town and its surrounds. Once again, we bumped into the two couples from the Ghan that we'd bumped into last night and at breakfast this morning. We took some photos from the hill but didn't stay there long because it was quite chilly.

We left the hotel again at 9:30 with all four of us on board. The first stop was Simpsons Gap which about 20km west of Alice Springs along Larapinta Drive. From the car park there was an easy 10 minutes walk along a dry creek bed to Simpsons Gap. It is called a gap because it is break in the West Macdonnell Ranges which provides easy access on foot to the other side of the ranges. There is a small pond at the base of the towering red cliffs on either side.

Next on the agenda was Standley Chasm which is about 50km west of Alice Springs. This time the walk was harder and Annie was only able to get part of the way. The chasm consists of a passage about 5m wide between sheer vertical walls.

We were told that it was best to see it at about midday because at that time the sun shines directly down into the chasm and so our timing for the day was focussed on getting there soon after 11:30am. Although there was still some high cloud, we did manage to get pictures of the sun directly overhead lighting up the chasm.

The final stop on our outing was Alice Springs Desert Park. It was another of the places that the car rental company had suggested we go. He'd told us that David Attenborough thinks it's the best nature reserve in the world.

After lunch in the cafe, he took off on foot to see the park. Well, three of us went on foot whereas Paul hired a small golf-cart type vehicle for Annie to get around.

It has very good exhibits along the paths including several avaries. With some avaries, you look at the birds through windows or wire mesh but for others you walk into the avary.

We visited the Nocturnal House which is a building with subdued lighting so they can show you animals that normally only come out at night. At 3pm, we went to the exhibition centre to see a very professional film about the outback.

Perhaps the highlight of the visit was the next show we went to - namely, the Nature Theatre. Here there was a semi-circular grandstand with the Macdonnell ranges in the foreground. One of the rangers gave us a fascinating talk about the native bird life. As she talked, the birds she was talking about appeared right on cue to swoop in and take the food she was offering. We took lots of photos as the birds flew past in front of us and above us.

We drove back to the hotel where I dropped off the other three and then took the car back to the car rental company. I enjoyed the walk back to the hotel on both sides of the Todd River.

For dinner, we walked to the casino which is only about 300m down the street from our hotel and had a nice meal at the bistro.