Day 27: Tjoritja / West MacDonnell Ranges (Day 2)
I got up early today for my turn to do the Ghost Gum walk. It was gorgeous to watch the sunrise into the gorge. I found lots of wildflowers and rocks to soak in with the track all to myself. Once back down to the river I decided to wade through the water rather than returning the same way. This meant there was a bit of rock hopping but there were a lot more birds down by the water than on the walk in.
Back at camp we all loaded into the car to go check out the Ochre Cliffs. This was a much better view of the ochre outcrop then we saw in South Australia, as we got to walk along the base of the cliffs and could see the different colours (all due to the amount of iron - or not - in the mudstone and siltstone). It was pretty cool to see the near vertical layers of ochre deposits.
Next stop was Ellery Creek Big Hole for a freezing cold swim and lunch. This time, although Theo was the first one in, all of us went for a "swim" (more like quick submersion then out again). While drying off we watched the zebra finches flit around the waters edge.
After returning to camp we headed off in the late afternoon to go on the Ghost Gum walk as a family. Once again taking the gorge floor route to return to camp. I really enjoyed seeing the gorge at both sunrise and sunset!
