Ross River Resort to Arltunga NT

Sunday 26 June 2022
We enjoyed a lovely night by the fire last night with fellow travellers Joe and Jenny from Victoria. They are on their way to Darwin.

We headed off from Ross River Resort this morning down the Binns Track to N’Dhala Gorge where we enjoyed a nice walk through the gorge and saw some old Aboriginal Petroglyphs.

“N’Dhala Gorge is a cultural treasure with 6,000 individual petroglyphs, or rock carvings, found in 438 engraved sites along the main gorge and 240 engraved sites in the side gorge. It is suggested that engraving occurred over two time periods. The first was around 10,000 years ago and the second started about 3,000 years ago.”

We then went to John Hayes Rockhole which was via a 4km high clearance 4WD track. This was quite slow going and a definite tyre puncture trail. Once again, David’s cautious driving avoided the tyre trashing. Yippee!! We did the Chain of Ponds. An easy 15 minute walk to the top of this narrow Gorge offers spectacular views. However, some difficult climbing and scrambling over rocks is required to continue to the Rockhole. A feature of this walk is the lookout which provides a fine view over the Gorge. We did the whole walk which took just over an hour.

Next stop was Trephine Gorge. By thistle I was fading but we managed to do the Panorama Walk which had spectacular views over he East MacDonnell Ranges. This walk offers good views and interesting geological sites. The spectacular folding you can see in the rock faces along this walk were created in the upheaval stage, when the soft bitter springs rock was twisted and folded by powerful earth movements. We left the Trephine Gorge walk for another time.

We then enjoyed a beautiful drive along a dirt road through the East MacDonnell Ranges to Arltunga. A tiny place which the NT Govt has done some restoration of the Old Govt Works and Mining Town. We also visited an old Cemetery and a lookout before heading to a new campground on a Cattle Station. It is getting very cold here now, about -2° here last night. Hopefully it isn’t that cold tonight.

: As we left Ross River Resort we headed out on a dirt road towards N’Dhala Gorge – this photo shows the difference in the range on either side of the road.As we left Ross River Resort we headed out on a dirt road towards N’Dhala Gorge – this photo shows the difference in the range on either side of the road.

: The rock feature was amazing as we crossed over the soft sand of the Ross River. We crossed the river bed about 6 or 7 times before we reached the Gorge.