Comets, Bluff and the Wide Blue Yonder

Sunday, June 29:

We decided to go furthest away westwards and then work our way back looking at all the different places.

We stopped at Tyler’s Pass and while we took photos it was hard to capture the distance which was flat and stretched every westwards. The only thing you could see was Tnorla or Gosse Bluff a towering mass of rock rising up from the plains.

View of Tnorala or Gosse Bluff from Tylers Pass, West MacDonnell Ranges.

Another 20 or so kms on we drove into Tnorla (Goss bluff) which is a massive crater left by a comet which struck there millions of years ago. This is a very special site to the local Aborigines but they do let us visit. Every where you look you are surrounded by towering jagged peaks that were compressed and pushed up as the 1km wide comet (made of frozen carbon dioxide) struck.

Inside the comet site surrounded by uplifted peaks

An unusual nest of one of the inhabitants atTnorala or Gosse Bluff. We think it is a termite nest???

We left and travelled back Redbank Gorge which is least developed of the gorges of the West MacDonnell Ranges. There was a narrow walking track running beside the dry river bed but then it just disappeared and you had to scramble your own way over rocks and hope you found the track again elsewhere. It was supposed to be a 20min walk but after half an hour we gave up and turned back. I was frightened I would fall and break a bone or two.

We were glad to return to camp and sit and have a nice drink with the neighbours though the cold soon forced everyone inside.