Tjoritja/West MacDonnell National Park - Part 1

The area is commonly known as the West Macs and it is a spectacular section of the ranges showing ancient landscape sculptured over time by climatic elements. It stretches for 160kms west of Alice Springs.

Simpsons Gap

We spent some time in the campsite with a lovely  Australian couple we met in a fifth wheeler and Lloyd did his helpful auto electrical fix it as they had problems with their charging. We so do enjoy meeting travellers and it was unusual to meet Australians travelling in Alice as it is so hot and it is mainly Germans and some Americans as the others wait until it is cooler from May onwards.

Standley Chasm

Our first stop was Simpsons Gap which is one of the most prominent gaps in the West Mac ranges. We did a few short walks before moving on to Standley Chasm.
The chasm is in Aborginal land and part of a land trust that operates the area which cuts through tough quartzite to form a natural alleyway and is impressive at mid day to catch the sun which we did. The walk is a couple of kms and goes past lush plants and there are lots of streams with native  frogs which we saw. They had huge rain about a month ago which has left the area very lush and green which is unusual.