Cautionery Tales

Without rambling further about getting lost trying to find Anzac Hill or our inability to open the fuel tank on a Holden Cruz we will focus on the priorities, namely a decent map. Forget all the brochures and booklets with maps that you never find when you need them, otherwise you won’t have a proper idea of the scale of your undertaking in journeying to Central Australia. The map above is OK but if you happen to notice the scale you’ll realise that it’s a long way to and from anywhere, let alone civilization.

Although I visited the Alice Springs Tourist Information Centre specifically for a good road map it only had Hema’s Central Australia Map which covered a much larger area than what I needed, I got it anyway. At Ayers Rock I finally found Hema’s Red Centre Map for Alice Springs to Uluru which had much more detail for the curious traveller. The essential difference was the scale, The Red Centre is 1:750,000 while the Central Australia map was 1: 2,000,000!

Enough shilly shallying. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to visit Ormiston Gorge after stocking up with supplies, maps and a coffee in Alice Springs so we headed out west along Namatjira Drive to Standley Chasm and Simpsons Gap. It’s a big, wide world out here and it’s only 100 km return!