Day 49 / 2025 - Kings Canyon to Alice Springs

Leaving Kings Canyon we headed back towards Lassiter Hwy. Bruce and Gina had toyed with the idea of going through the Mereenie Loop but the boat mounting rack may not be secure enough for a gravel road. We had always intended to travel back over the sealed road. Our setup is not really rough road ready, we don't have any of the underbody armour or stone stomping equipment.

We had booked into the Discovery Park in Alice Springs for a week in 1 days time so planned to find a rest area somewhere on the Stuart Hwy. Travelling back along Luritja Road we were tail wind assistance but turning left back onto Lassiter Hwy we were faced with a headwind. As we travelled along the wind did turn a bit more southerly not so much head on. We filled up at Erldunda and were pleasantly surprised that we used the same fuel consumption as going in. We stopped for the night at Desert Oaks Rest Area. The Fly's were once again extremely friendly and the night was very cold, we found out later it had dropped to minus 1 overnight. Next morning we made our way int Alice Springs booking into the caravan park for the next week.

Alice Springs is a reasonable size regional centre we have been here before so have already seen many of the attractions on offer. Our main reason was to visit some of the natural attractions out on the east McDonnell ranges as well as catch up on a few chores. I also got the Nissan serviced with an Oil and Filter change. We had only done about 5,000 Km but these had been all towing Km's. Nissan recommend more frequent oil changes when towing.

Heading out along the Ross Hwy east the road followed the rocky range. We decided to venture to our furtherest point first which was Trephina Gorge about 80 Km from Alice Springs. It started as a wide 2 lane bitumen road then about 60 km in changed to a 1 lane bitumen road.  Turning into Trephina gorge the road was still sealed until the last 4 Km where it then became a gravel track to the campground and day carpark.  

There were 4 walks you can do starting from the carpark. There is a 500 metre return walk down on the Gorge floor, a 2 Km rim loop walk, a 2km Panorama loop walk and a 9km one way walk to the chain of pools. We opted for the 2 Km Rim walk  which took you up then along the top rim then back down into the gorge floor and carpark. The route had you clambering up and down rock stairs but was reasonably easy to do taking us about an hour to complete the circuit. We also visited a ghost gum tree which is suppose to be the largest in Australia.

Leaving Trephina Gorge we headed back along the road towards Alice Springs. At about the 50 Km mark was Cooberee rock, about a Km in off the Ross Hwy. The road in is sealed and there is a day use area. The area has cultural significance to the local indiginous people and is where secret mens business is conducted. It is a place where women are not allowed 

From there we travelled to 2 significant gaps in the ranges, one is called Jessie's Gap and the other Emily's Gap. There is suppose to be rock art at both these places although we could not find any. Emily's gap had water in it but most likely from recent rains as neither locations have a permanent water source. 

 The Caravan Park was located just opposite Alice Springs Brewery. This was a good place to test the local ale as well as a tasty meal in the evening. The park itself also had many activities. Generally there was a nightly activity such as star gazing, line dancing or a good old fashion happy hour with a fire up on sunset hill. They had a van there which sold various deserts with a Strawberry theme such as pancakes, Pavlova and ice-creams.