Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
Smaller but wealthier than Pompeii, Herculaneum suffered the same fate: “destroyed” by the 79 AD eruption of Mt Vesuvius.
Whilst the volcano really did extinguish all human life in both places, its ash – which buried them – in fact made them the two best-preserved of all ancient Roman towns.
Their “secrets” are still being uncovered.
In Italy, even working archeologists can display an uncommon amount of “style”/ “attitude”/“flair”.
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Perchance the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers happened upon the pictured sign, they’d likely have impulse-emigrated to Italy!
After having seen several such signs on the exterior walls of Italian bottle shops, I wondered whether something was being “lost in translation”….
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As previously noted, Mt Sonder is relatively modest in altitude and bulk, but it is particularly beautiful, especially when the sun is not too high in the sky.
What makes it even more beautiful – and this true of almost every mountain, hill, gorge and creek in and around the MacDonnell Ranges – is the fact that it sits within such beautifully-vegetated country.
Almost anywhere you look, it just gets better and better, the more closely you look.
You should never fail to look closely at all layers of whatever landscape you find yourself within – foreground through to horizon.
If you look at the watercolours painted by this region’s most famous artist, you can see that Albert Namatjira (1902-1959) understood this very well.
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Photo is copyright Doug Spencer.
No fakery involved. Taken at 1.04/pm on 14 June 2023 in Emily Gap.
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“Ghost” who glows…
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I took the photo at 10.45 am on 17 June 2023, looking up, as we set off into Ormiston Gorge.
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After taking the photo featured in #14 in this series, my beloved and I decided to scramble our way up to the path that followed a ridge line, rather than retrace our steps along the gorge’s floor
This proved surprisingly easy.
Less than ten minutes later we were heading back to Ormiston HQ, via a well-made pathway that gave us easy access to the lookout from which I took the image featured in this series’ first chapter.
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To reach the pictured location, you need to be able-bodied, but – in stable weather, at least – it does not involve a very long walk, nor an arduous/particularly hazardous one.
It still surprises me that relatively few visitors to such a magnificent place are prepared to walk more than a very few, very easy steps away from the car/bus park.
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In winter, in a “good” year, some places in “The Red Centre” can surprise a first-time visitor by presenting a relatively soft, lush green “face”.
Ellery Creek Big Hole is a striking, dramatic destination at any time, but it does not always look the way it did on 17 June 2023.
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This is a very popular swimming/ picnicking spot, easily accessed, just 80 kilometres west of Alice Springs.
It also offers scenic splendour, complex geology, and good walking opportunities.
Newcomers who lack knowledge of Western MacDonnell Ranges’ water holes will experience a cold shock the first time they enter this one.
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