Kings Canyon to Alice Springs - Mereenie Loop

KINGS CANYON TO ALICE SPRINGS – MEREENIE LOOP

We woke up early to get on the road to tackle Mereenie Loop  The Mereenie Loop is a shortcut between Kings Canyon and Alice Springs being 350kms as opposed to going back to the highway being 550kms.   However it has 150kms section of badly corrugated, rough and dusty.  Another advantages is that it passes a number of gorges, Redbank and Ormiston Gorge, which we stopped it.

The day before Brad did lots of prep work by sealing vents and general maintenance to have us better prepared for the 150kms for corrugations  and dust.  This was a trial run before hitting the Gibb River Road later in the trip.  And LUCKY we did!

After about 75kms down the road Brad wanted to pullover and check how the van was travelling inside.   All bedding from Sarah and Paige’s bed which we put on the back table together with all our towels were allover the place.  That’s no big deal.  Then I looked down and there was some liquid on the floor I opened the cupboard and the Soy Sauce had tipped over and had dripped all over the shelf and as it was on the TOP shelf, had dripped right to the bottom shelf.

After that clean up, we opened the fridge, of course another spill.  A jar of pickled Jalapenos had tipped and the lid popped off.  Again it was on the top shelf so after that clean up.  We were off again.

Once we were back on bitumen we pumped the tyres back up and drove to Redbank Gorge.  This was a 3km walk along a dry river bank on sand and over large rocks.  At the end of the walk of a body of water which the sign at the start of the walk mentions you can float down with a floatation device.  This was not something any of us wanted to do MARK HULETT!

Next stop was Ormiston Gorge, this was a much shorter walk with a waterhole at the end.  The girls took only seconds to kick their socks and shoes off and put their feet in the water, but in warmer weather, this would be a great place to spend a day cooling off in the water.

As it was getting late and had been a long day so far, we pushed onto Alice Springs.