Blogging has been quiet this week due to the Christmas/New Year break but now back to it and our holiday which took place late October /early November.

So day 9 and we had lovely sunrise at Old Andado.

Finches on the wire. There were so many of them.

 On the left is a Potato bush/weed.

 Cobby took us for a drive to visit a "gunyah" or shack built by Molly and friends to be used by some scientists from America..

We then paid a quick visit to Molly's grave before saying farewell Cobby and going on our way.

We drove to Finke/Aputula Aboriginal Community where we turned off for the road to the Lambert Centre which is the geographical heart of Australia.

 It was a narrow and very sandy side track to the centre. A little bit like a rabbit warren, the track kept dividing and rejoining all the way.

 

 It was then back to Finke where we turned onto the Ghan Heritage trail road which was to lead us to Chambers Pillar for the night.

Running alongside the Finke Desert race track,this road is actually on the old train line. There are alot of railway spikes to look out for as these can have damaging effects on tyres. We escaped damage but the other members of our group didn't though the burst tyre was not due to a spike.Here you are still travelling on the edge of the Simpson desert so there were plenty of red sand dunes around. 

It was also very, very hot.

 We had a welcome icecream break at Maryvale Station where we saw this Ringneck parrot looking for a drink. The trees are desert oaks.

We had to cross through the Charlotte Ranges before we got our first view of the Pillar.
Chambers Pillar is a column of sandstone which towers 40 metres above the surrounding plain. 

John McDouall Stuart was the first European to see Chambers Pillar, reaching the site in April 1860, and naming it after James Chambers, one of his South Australian sponsors. During the subsequent years numerous visitors have added graffiti by carving names in the soft sandstone at the base of the pillar.(Wikipedia). The base is now fenced off.

Window Rock and Castle Rock are two other sandstone features of the reserve.

 We arrived in time to set up camp and enjoy the sunset.

It was a lovely place to camp and the toilets were well cared for.

Some of these photos are from the previous evening. The time set in my camera decided to reset itself and it was a bit late weeks after to remember exactly when all the photos were taken. However, we were still up early enough the next day to capture the early morning light over the pillar.

 We came across wild camels soon after leaving Chambers Pillar, our first ones for the trip.

After returning to the Old Ghan Heritage Trail, we set our sights on Alice Springs first stopping at the Ewaninga Rock Carvings.

The rock engravings(petroglyphs) are clearly carved into the rocks and there are quite a number of them to be seen.Most of the meanings of the petroglyphs are sacred to the Arrente people of the area and dangerous to reveal to people that have not been initiated into Aboriginal law. The age of the carvings is unknown.

 We found Golden Everlasting/Yellow Paper Daisy flowers as well strange tracks in the sand, presumably                                                                      created by an insect.

It's also a beautiful place to visit.

     

Next stop ...Alice Springs.

                                 
 Once on the Stuart Highway, we had our first glimpse of the  MacDonnell Ranges. It's pretty impressive, at least I thought so,  driving through the Gap, as it's called and into the town of Alice Springs.












I found these in a shopping centre not far from Todd Mall. I'll take photos of almost anything!

Views of Todd Mall.