Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Day 18 – 3/08/05 Rainbow Valley, NT
We'd checked into a backpackers' last night, mainly becaue we needed power to charge the photo storage device, laptop and camera batteries. Thought we'd start earlier because we didn't have to pack up the tent etc. But it was the usual time by the time we started. Took us an hour to update the blog site before setting off for Standley Chasm. Standley chasm is best viewed in the mid day sun when both sides of the gorge walls are lit for a few minutes when the sun is overhead. But it was past noon when we were finally ready to set off. So we changed plans and decided to head to Uluru first. We saw that Rainbow Valley was on the way and decided to take the detour. It was a 25 km dirt road, quite corrugated and sandy and very rough. It was early afternoon when we got to Rainbow Valley, which is a hill which has been eroded on one side. The rock is in layers of different colours, rich dark chocolate brown, lighter rusty orange brown, light brown, yellow and white. The darker
the colour the richer the iron content of the rock. The lighter coloured rocks are sandstone. The sandstone is at the bottom, with the dark brown rock forming the capping layer. Each of the rocks erodes at a different rate, and the colours have sort of run into each other. It was a gorgeous sight when we got to it and promised to get better as the evening wore on. So we decided to camp right there. There were no facilities, save a composting toilet. But the place was beautiful. We weren't the only ones who thought so. There were about 5 other tents set up by evening. Lots of groups visited and took short walks but did not stay. We took a short walk to Mushroom rock, which, you guessed it, was eroded into something which looked like a mushroom with some imagination. Then we returned and set up tent. When that was done, we took two chairs and went and sat in the large and dry claypan at the bottom of the hill and watched the sun set. It was very relaxing, and well worth staying for. The whole hill glowed like it was on fire, just before the sun set.
