Mpulungkinya Walk, Finke Gorge National Park - January 2016

Palm Valley

I'd wanted to get out to Palm Valley when Sam and I were up in Central Australia last Christmas, but unfortunately a lot of unseasonal rain had looked like stopping my plans. Crossing over the Finke River at Hermannsberg on our way from Watarrka to Alice Springs revealed a river flowing a banka, and with the 4wd track following the Finke River into Palm Valley I didn't fancy our chances of getting in, sure enough when we got to Alice and I checked the access web site it said that the access track was closed due to flooding and wouldn't be opened until mid January, not ideal for me as I had to be back at work in Melbourne by the 4th. So anyway after spending a week in Alice Springs doing a bit of walking I thought that I should check the website again before heading home and what do you know?... they said that the track was open with caution, with warnings of long sections under water and soft sand it promised to be a more adventurous trip in then normal, but I was pretty confident that we'd get through. So on New Years Day we jumped in the ute and headed west out of town, arriving at the start of the access track at Hermannsberg, the road was indeed open. It was definitely the hardest trip in to Palm Valley that I've ever had though (I've been here at least ten times before over the years), there was lots of water still flowing down the Finke River and at times I had to stop and try and work out where the road exited the water, a couple of times I couldn't make out the exit so we just had to drive down the river until we noticed the track climbing out of the water. The final crossing of the Finke River near Palm Creek was the hardest, the rangers had re routed the track away from the usual crossing due to deep water but the detour had us crossing a desert of soft deep sand, before eventually crossing the Finke in a shallower spot and climbing up the steep sandy bank. Now following Palm Creek the track was a little firmer although water and the usual rocks still had us in low range, by the time I pulled up at the start of the Mpulungkinya Walk I was pretty happy to be pulling on my boots and getting off my bum.

Heading off, we had a magic summers day for this walk, it was hot but the howling wind help take the edge off the temperature, and the recent rain had replenished all the waterholes which meant that we had ample opportunities to cool off.

The walk through the shallow gorge is mostly along sandstone slabs.

Better get used to photos of palm trees!

The rangers have laid matting over most of the sections of soft sand.

Mpulungkinya is the Arrernte name for the walk but most people would probably know this walk by its other title, the fairly mundane Palm Valley Walk, Mpulungkinya definitely sounds more interesting to me...just don't ask my to pronounce it! There are two walks up the gorge, the short Arankaia Walk that loops back after a kilometre or so and the longer Mpulungkinya Walk that goes all the way through the gorge before heading back across a broad plateau, we were going to do the longer walk. So, after packing some lunch and a towel we headed off into the gorge. Palm Valley is famous for its resident Cabbage Palms, some of which are over 300 years old and are a relic from when Central Australia was covered by rainforest millions of years ago. Apart from the Red Cabbage Palms (which incidentally are only red in juvenile form) the gorge is also home to a lot of cycads, and while they are hardly un common in other gorges in Central Australia they are still a bit of an incongruous site in these arid climates.

The trail is well marked by these blue arrows.

The juvenile Red Cabbage Palms are....red.

The route up through the gorge alternates between sandstone slabs interspersed with short sections of red sand, now days the rangers have laid long sections of matting over the softest sections of sand making these sections a lot easier than they used to be. It was now late morning and the desert was starting to heat up a bit, although the howling wind took the edge of the temperature a bit. We had to criss cross Palm Creek in a couple of spots to avoid wet feet which is fairly unusual through here, while there is normally some permanent water in Palm Creek I've never seen it with this many waterholes full to over flowing. Passing by the turnoff to the shorter Arankaia Walk we instead headed further into the gorge, the numerous groves of Cabbage Palms getting violently tossed about by the wind making my wonder what the wind would be like when we eventually left the shelter of the gorge.

There are some fairly large rocks littering the floor of the valley.

Nearing the end of the gorge part of our stroll we got to a slightly deeper waterhole that is generally deep enough to swim in, this spot has the added advantage of a small overhang which allows you to get out of the sun for awhile. Stripping off I was soon relaxing in the refreshing waterhole, the reeds around me giving me some protection from the hot wind gusting down the gorge. This is a great spot as its a bit far from the car park for most people to get to in summer so quite often you get it to yourself. We spent an hour or so having some lunch, soaking in the water, drinking and taking photos in this magic spot, pulling on some clothes it was hard to leave but we still had a couple of kilometres in front of us across the plateau before we got back to the ute.

The gorge is starting to open out into Palm Valley.

It certainly beats swimming in a pool.

Looking back down the gorge from my swimming spot.

There are a few of these small overhangs that give you a bit of shade.

Leaving our waterhole the Palm Creek Gorge opens up into the wide Palm Valley, the scenery looking even more epic than normal due to the dust haze in the air I think. Almost as soon as the gorge opens up we climbed up onto the plateau via a nice cave, the over hang providing a shady respite from the desert heat, I couldn't help but wonder how many of our indigenous brothers and sisters had sat in this exact spot over thousands of years taking in the same view down to Palm Valley that we were today, its quite humbling when you think about it. Leaving the cave the route climbs a normally dry waterfall before striking out across the broad flat plateau. The top of the plateau is an arid affair after the lush vegetation and water of the gorge, although with all the rain recently up here the spinifex was looking nice and green. The open country across the top features quite a few Ghost Gums and lots of Cypress Pines, two of my favourite Australian trees so I had plenty of opportunities to abuse my polariser as I took photos of the beautiful trees against the cobalt blue sky and the red rocks, its hard to take a bad photo up here when the sky is clear and the suns shining.

Looking over Palm Valley from the cave on the climb out of the gorge. The sky is starting to look a bit purple due to the red dust.

The open walking across the plateau is interesting and scenic in its own right.

Yeah, I don't mind the odd Ghost Gum.

After our short walk across the plateau we once again arrived back at the top of the gorge, the extra height giving us a nice over view of the palm filled creek below us. The wind was really hammering now though, whipping the palms around below us, the other thing that the wind was doing was picking up quite a bit of dust which was making the sky appear almost purple in some  of my photos. The walk was coming to an end now as we descended along the south rim of the gorge, the track utilising broad sloping slabs of sandstone to make its way down to creek level. Arriving back at the ute in the early afternoon we were a slightly surprised to see that no other 4wd's had turned up to this great place, maybe the flooding and washed away track had put some people off visiting.....who knows?

We've crossed the plateau and are now looking back into Palm Creek from the top of the gorge.

The spinifex was looking healthy after the recent rain.

Dropping back down to the ute.

The Dirt.

We walked 5.9 kilometres on this walk and climbed 128 metres. This is a stunningly beautiful, easy walk, one of the best short walks in Australia in my opinion. We used the notes out of Tyrone Thomas and Andrew Close' book 40 Great Walks in Australia, the Daly's have also written it up in their Take A Walk In The Northern Territory's National Parks. Access to Palm Valley is an issue if you don't have a 4wd, the track in features water crossings, soft sand and rock shelves that have to be negotiated, I noticed that Mr Thomas suggested that you could get into the camping area in a car with high ground clearance, in my experience over the years you will definitely need a 4wd with reasonable ground clearance, the soft sand will stop a 2wd car pretty quickly. Summer is not normally a great time to visit Central Australia but if you don't try and fight the heat, and try and adapt your day around the inevitable furnace then it is possible to have an enjoyable time up there. We were very lucky on this trip to have a lot of rain so a lot of the walks that we did involved a bit of time swimming or soaking in a cool waterhole.

There weren't many people out here today.

The drive in and out is slow going, some people walk in from the camp ground which adds about six and a half kilometres to the walk.