N'Dhala Gorge Nature Park - December 2015

N'Dhala Gorge is another lesser known attraction in the Eastern MacDonnell Ranges near Alice Springs, the local Arrente people called this place Irlwentye and the gorge is home to what amounts to an open air museum of petroglyphs. A petroglyph is a rock carving and some of the examples in this gorge could be as old as 10,000 years, although most are around 2000 years old. You don't have to be an expert to find the petroglyphs here as there are almost 6000 known engravings in the area. With its numerous overhangs and fairly reliable water holes, Irlwentye must have made for a fairly idyllic location for the local Arrente.

Heading out of Alice Springs on the Ringwood Homestead Road.

Getting to and from this walk is a bit of an adventure.

The track in from the south follows the Ross River.

We, yes Sam accompanied me on this stroll, headed east out Alice Springs around lunchtime on another hot summers day. It's getting a bit repetitive but we've been here a few times over the years, so having a little local knowledge I decided to head into the park via a slightly different route and come in from the south off the Ringwood Homestead Road. Approaching N'Dhala Gorge Nature Park from here means following the Ross River north into the low ranges, cris-crossing the soft sandy river bed to find the path of least resistance through the encroaching rocky bluffs. On meeting the more common access track from Ross River Homestead to the north we then headed the last couple of kilometres to the car park.

The track into N'Dhala Gorge has plenty of these information signs.

Our first petroglyph.

The walk into N'Dhala Gorge is a pretty straight forward affair, just wander into the gorge as far as you want before turning around and heading back. As we made our way into the gorge the track crossed the creek a few times, with all the recent rain Sam had to head bush couple of times to avoid wet boots on a couple of the crossings, I had decided to wear my Teva sandals so I quite enjoyed sloshing along the damper parts of the walk. As we progressed along the track the red bluffs of the gorge started to close in, and at the same time the sightings of petroglyphs became more common. There are two different types of petroglyphs in N'Dhala Gorge, some of the Petroglyphs were made by pecking away at with a sharp rock where as others were thought to be made using a blunter instrument, this has led to scientists suggesting that they may have been done over two different periods.

There was plenty of water around on this visit.

Sam stopped here while I headed up until the gorge started to open up.

With the jagged red walls closing in on us we arrived at a beautiful water hole, yeah another beautiful spot for a swim. In between soaking in the cool water I explored a little further through the gorge however soon the cliffs started to open up a bit indicating that I'd passed through the most spectacular section so I decided to rock hop my way back down to the waterhole. N'Dhala Gorge also features quite a few over hangs and small caves which would have made comfortable places for the local Arrente to camp, now days however most of these spots have been claimed by the local euros and rock wallabies and while the over hangs still provide great shelter the smell of animal urine means that I didn't linger in them for to long.

Hardcore walking:)

This petroglyph shows the Caterpillar Dreaming story.

After another cooling swim we started the easy walk back to the ute, retracing our outward route meant there was no danger of any navigational issues so we were able to concentrate on the rugged scenery. While we had been mucking around in the water the over cast skies had cleared a bit so my photos also correspondingly improved a bit. Reaching the dusty car park we jumped into the ute and headed north towards the Ross Highway, once again crossing the sandy Ross River numerous times. 

I think the circular petroglyphs depict water holes.

I came prepared for the creek crossings on this walk.

The Dirt.

We walked 3 kilometres on this stroll and climbed 64 metres, although the walk has a lot of scope to be shortened or lengthened, just turn around earlier or walk further through the gorge. John Day has written up this walk in his Northern Territory book. This little gorge is a great, but little known spot to view a large collection of indigenous art in the form of the petroglyphs, you just have to keep your eyes open and more and more seem to appear. The track into N'Dhala Gorge starts off pretty easy but eventually fades away completely as you pass through the gorge, the open rocky country still made for reasonably easy progress when the track finished. Like a lot of the other walks that we did in Central Australia this summer it isn't always possible to swim on this walk, we were very lucky to have a wet summer so all the water holes were full. I'd rate this walk as another easy one, and while it may be easy its still worth visiting this slightly off the beaten track spot. You will need a 4wd with a bit of ground clearance to get to the car park at the start of the trail as the access from both north and south require numerous crossings of the soft sand of the Ross River,  if you don't have a 4wd it may be possible to organise a lift in from the tourist resort of Ross River Homestead (maybe?).

Back at the trail head, there is a small camping area along with a long drop if you wanted to camp here.

Heading up towards the Ross River Homestead, the cattle had certainly been in a good paddock!

These brumbies were enjoying the good water and feed near the river.