Thursday 2nd June
Gaylene and Ray called around for a coffee, and then we said fond farewells before they headed off north to continue their travels. We decided we would ‘head out west’ and have a look at John Flynn’s grave, then carry on out to Simpson Gap and Standley Chasm.
John Flynn was a missionary working in the outback of Australia. He was concerned about the lack of medical care people living in the outback were getting, and the huge distances they had to travel in order to get medical help. As a result he set up the Flying Doctor Service. His grave is beside the road just outside ALICE SPRINGS, and we stopped in to ‘pay our respects’, on the way to Simpsons Gap and Standley Chasm.
Our next stop over was Simpsons Gap, which is just that, a gap running right through the West MacDonnell Ranges.
As we were travelling down the road leading to the gap, we stopped to get some photos. Cameron hopped out of the car and almost stood on a small snake which made a rapid exit into the long grass. Simpsons Gap has been created by millions of years of erosion by a small stream running through the ranges.
It is quite spectacular with the walls of the ranges towering above you as you walk through. The floor at the bottom is about 5 meters wide.
After that we headed on out to Standley Chasm, which, like Simpsons Gap, has been formed by erosion by a stream. Only Standley Chasm is the big brother of the two. A narrower gap, and much deeper than Simpson’s, and therefore quite a bit more spectacular. The walking track in from the car park was a bit of a scramble over rocks but the view at the end was well worth it.
It was quite eerie to stand in the bottom and gaze up at the huge towering walls above you.
The width of the Chasm at the bottom was only about two and a half to three meters wide, and the walls are 80 meters high.
From there we headed back into town and went to visit the old Alice Springs Telegraph Station. It is situated about 3 km north of the present town beside the Todd River. Like Tennant Creek and Barrow Creek, this was another in the line that stretched from Adelaide to Darwin. The Alice Springs Station had been much better preserved and cared for than the other two, and was by all accounts a much bigger setup.
The station was deliberately positioned where it was because of its proximity to the almost permanent water lying in pools in the nearby Todd River Bed.
The early explorers believed they were springs and they were named after the wife of one of them. We spent a very interesting half hour or so looking around. When we came to sign the visitors book, we saw Gaylene and Ray had signed it earlier in the day on their way north.
While we were talking to one of the volunteers at the Telegraph Station, we learnt the legendary Ghan train was at the Alice Springs Station on one of its twice weekly runs from Adelaide to Darwin. We decided to check it out and shot around to the Railway Station.
We were staggered at the length of the thing. It was due to leave at 6.00, so after taking some photos of it at the station, we shot out to a crossing on the outskirts of town to watch it go past.
We had to wait about 10 minutes, and while we were waiting a guy drove up beside the line and stopped at the crossing. He was obviously a Railway Official of some sort, and Cameron wandered over for a chat. (As he does). It turns out this guy was a driver of the Train but not on driver’s duty. It was his job to man the crossing, and manually set the alarms and drop arms to allow the train to pass through. He told us the train was 640 meters long, which is the standard length. It is drawn by two diesel locomotives, but because the countryside is so flat, they only use the two engines to get up speed and for the occasional hill. The rest of the time the second engine is shut down. In fact he said only one engine is used for more than 90% of the journey.
It was quite a buzz to watch this huge train, travelling from one end of Aussie to the other, go past. Besides all the passenger coaches, the train also has two special carriages for transporting vehicles.
As a matter of interest we picked up a timetable and fares brochure from the Railway Station. Adelaide to Darwin - First Class $3072 Aus. Cattle Class without a sleeper cabin, $746, with a variety of different fares in between. The train leaves Adelaide at 12.20pm on a Sunday, and arrives in Darwin at 5.30pm on the Tuesday. The second train does the same times leaving Adelaide on the Wednesday and arriving at Darwin on the Friday.
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