Palm Valley Three

We walked down to the road first thing to scope out the river – much narrower and lower but still looking relatively dangerous (fast-flowing). The latest update from the ranger was that it might be passable by the afternoon, and that the other ranger was going to try and get in from Hermannsburg later in the day.

Some of the other campers decided that they might try and give it a go themselves, so took off in a couple of forbies to see how far they could go up the valley. They came back a few hours later having managed to get all the way to Hermannsburg (after wading every crossing before driving them and using their GPS to figure out where the road was under the water). The river was still pretty high and fast-flowing, but they reckoned we could get out. We were a bit dubious, but eventually decided to join the convoy with the intention of turning back if it looked too dangerous.

We obviously made it (since you are reading this now) – but it was through some pretty hairy conditions. The water was probably about level with the body of the BT at it’s deepest, but every crossing was wide and very fast-flowing. Once or twice it felt like the backend was slipping, but we did manage to make it out without any mishap (along with vehicles towing camper trailers and, surprisingly, one Rav 4). Ryan says that when my Dad reads this, he’s going to be horrified (I secretly think that he would have loved every minute of it had he been there himself). The BT seems OK (now with a high-tide mark in the generous coating of mud).

So we scrapped our planned exploration of the West Macdonnell Ranges and hightailed it straight to Alice Springs (being told that pretty much every dirt road out there was still closed). We are now holed up in a motel and will start our last dash up to Darwin tomorrow.

I guess if you had to be stranded somewhere for three days, Palm Valley is not too bad a place to be (had toilets, showers, gas BBQs and stoves and amazingly beautiful surroundings)(all of which were very well explored by the end – with everyone ranging further and further into the hills the longer we were stuck). We were, however, quite happy to finally get out of there.