There are problems at the start! One of the guests has failed to make the
connecting flight from Brisbane through Sydney to Alice Springs (there has been
thick fog in Sydney and all flights that morning have been affected), and the 4WD
bus owned by Sandrifter was in the sick bay getting a new motor.
Sandrifter Art Tours www.sandrifter.com.au take all this in their stride, as though it
happens all the time, which it doesn’t, and hire a bus locally to transport
their 17 guests (1 to follow) the 135kms east of Alice Springs to Ruby Gap
National Park, or as far as the bus can travel on outback roads, before transferring
to 4WDs - a Land Rovers, Toyota and a pickup for the remaining hour into the
back of beyond. They make arrangements
to transport the one remaining guest the next day when she arrives in Alice
Springs.
The end of the sealed
road
We make the rendezvous on time and await pickup for the
final few km to camp. As we wait at the
lookout and survey our surroundings; it is the hot, dry crunch and crackle of
every twig and blade of grass as I walk, that I am struck by most. There is not a hint of moisture
anywhere! It is as though every molecule
has been wrung out of the air, and then hair-dried to make sure. Flies soon find us, as they scramble to find
the meanest hint of moisture on our skin. There are other signs of life, and we
hear a few bird calls and see wild flowers amidst the thirsty green of spindly
shrubs and grasses.
Wild Flowers
We are collected by Gerry and Corinne, and driven to find
a good place for lunch, that turns out to be a dried riverbed a few kms into
the rough road. It is a chance to reflect on the environment we are moving into
– the inhospitable wildness of the place is almost palpable. It is saying, ‘take one wrong move here and,
you’re mine!”
The view from the
rendezvous, along the track we were due to travel on next
The drive into camp was so much fun, on some of the rockiest,
sandiest, most corrugated, weather beaten and eroded roads I’ve ever experienced.
The view from our
tents
Camp is well set up when we arrive, with shade cover over
the kitchen and eating area. There is a green tarp on the other side of the
track, about 30 meters away, that appears be the loos, and a large area of grey
ash that is to be our camp fire for the next eleven days. It will warm us, heat our water, feed us and
entertain us at night and warm and feed us when we awake in the morning.
I spend the first three nights under the stars in a
‘swag’, and only a persistent cold and the bright moon keep me from sleeping
out every night. Def: Swag (bedroll), an
Australian bedroll. What a great
experience! It consists of heavy canvas, folded in half long-ways, and sewn at
one end to form a folio-type pocket, into which a thin foam mattress and
sleeping bag is inserted. It is actually
very comfortable, and with a beanie (supplied by Corinne) to keep my head warm,
I sleep very well. I wake up a couple of
times to see three shooting stars at various times; one of which seems to travel
slower than the rest and leaves a long tail over the whole breadth of the sky.
I feel very privileged to experience this in such an environment.
It is a very cold night, but I am warm in the swag (so
long as the canvas is drawn over my sleeping bag).
In the morning, the fire is lit and others have gathered
round rubbing hands, with porridge in bowls, or bread, or crumpets on the end
of toasting forks.
The first introduction to our area is given by Gerry, the
co-owner of Sandrifter Art Tours, and we are taken up a low hill behind the
camp and shown several plants and told their health, healing or otherwise
beneficial properties. Gerry is such an entertaining story-teller that it takes
over an hour to climb the low hill that can normally be climbed in less than
ten minutes, as he stops at each bush and tells us a little about it, including
its Latin and common name, and what the aboriginals use it for; everything from
antiseptic and healing properties, to an alternative type of pepper, for the witchetty
grubs he showed us how to find.
We spend the afternoon organising ourselves and settling
into our new life under canvas for the next eleven nights.
There are two loos; one called Gidgee, the other Mulga,
both names of trees out here, and as we either go behind a tree or up against
one, these are great names! To know which to use, we call out the name as we
approach and enter whichever is free.
The system works well.
The next night under the stars is warmer for me and I see
two more shooting stars and hear an aircraft passing overhead at altitude,
going from West to East, perhaps from Perth to one of Australia’s East Coast
cities. I consider my position and
imagine if I were stuck out in the desert, it wouldn’t matter how many aircraft
flew overhead at 30,000ft, no one would know I was down here, and I could just
imagine how lonely that would feel.
There is a slight sprinkle of rain in the night, just a
few small drops apparently, and I wake with a wet neck and wonder jokingly if a
dingo had peed on me. It was either rain
or dingo.
This day we paint!
And fossick for garnets.
Garnets are all
over the dry Hale River bed.
The deep purple colour is fine
garnet sand
These garnets are virtually worthless but great fun to
collect, and are lying all over the dry river bed in clusters where the water
would have eddied round rocks, or on the surface as fine garnet sand that gives
areas a deep purple colour, and whenever I want a rest from painting, I fossick
for Garnets. In March 1886, explorer David Lindsay found what he thought were
rubies in the bed of the Hale River. By May 1887 there were over 200 people in
the area prospecting for rubies. By then gold had been discovered in the creek
near Paddys Rockhole, 45 km to the west, which led to the establishment of the
Arltunga Goldfield. At the beginning of
the ‘ruby’ rush European buyers were keen, but as the market was flooded,
buyers began to question their quality. By June 1888, it was found that the
stones were merely high grade garnets, not nearly as valuable as rubies.
Central Australia’s ruby boom quickly collapsed.
We see a lone Yellow Dingo on a rocky outcrop on our way
back to camp and I wonder how he finds enough to eat.
The meals provided for us are excellent! Breakfasts are usually porridge, but
sometimes Corinne cooks scrambled eggs, or Gerry cooks fantastic bacon and eggs.
Lunches are either a very full sandwich of salad and cold meat, or a very
inventive salad of lettuce, tomato, cold meat, nuts, fruit and other goodies.
Dinner round the camp fire is made up of two courses, alternating first and
main, then main with dessert that include camp-made pumpkin soup, roasts of
lamb and beef, BBQ, curry, stroganoff, pasta and so on.
A huge log on the
fire and two Camp Ovens with hot embers in the lid in the foreground, doing
roast veg and a lamb roast.
Hale River is dryer than Gerry has known it, and water is
one of the things brought in with us in five large drums in a trailer. Our showers therefore must be rationed to one
9lt bucket every other day, until more water can be found. There is water under the sand below our camp
but five foot down and too deep to be effectively pumped for shower use (the
sand is damp just inches below the surface, even in all this dryness) so there
is water to be found, if you know where to look. The shower is ‘Gerry built’, with a pump and
heating element. The bucket of water is
poured into a reservoir in the compartment which is pumped through the heating
element to the shower. It is a brilliant
piece of homemade mechanics and typical of inventive Gerry. They needed an urn once for teas and coffee
and after looking around camping shops, Gerry said I’ll build one and took an
old cooking pot, drilled a hole in the base, attached a tap and constructed a
gas fired holder for it to sit in – works better than any shop bought urn and
has three elements for superfast water-boiling, for emergency cups of tea.
We are told that the aborigines would never come to Ruby
Gap until everything had been depleted or had died on the plains and then, and
only then, would they retreat to the gap (where food and water could be
found). Ruby Gap was considered the last
ditch backstop for survival. If the easy pickings of the gorge were depleted in
times of plenty, there would be nothing left in times of drought and famine. They
also felt vulnerable to attack from other groups in the close confines of the
gorge, and preferred the open planes.
It is Corinne’s birthday today, and also one of their
guests who is eighty. They make a
chocolate cake and Gerry gives Corinne a book called, ‘Grandma’s 1001 uses for
Baking Soda and Vinegar’. It’s what
every girl dreams of J
One day we do a long walk up the Hale River to Ruby Gap
and Glen Annie Gorge, where we find water, both in the gorge and on the way. Gerry organises to refill our drums so that
we can be a bit freer with our showers.
Water!
And
an Ant Lion; it sits at the bottom of a cone in the sand, waiting for an ant to
fall in. Dinner!
There is evidence everywhere of bush fires and plenty of
charcoal for drawings if we want it, which leave black lines on clothing as we
walk through. Apparently the whole area
went up in September, and is only just starting to recover. The river bed is covered with young shoots
and new growth, but most of these will be swept way in the first rains when
they come.
One day I walk to the top of the escarpment. I just want to rest my eyes after days of being
in the gorge, and see what is out there on the horizon. I take water and Gerry gives me a handheld
radio for communication in case I get into trouble, and off I go. The climb up
is steep and treacherous with loose rock and shale, but I get up and stand
admiring the view. It is like a breath
of fresh air. I descend via a dry water
course, which is much safer.
The camp
Most of Sandrifter’s clients have been out with Gerry and
Corinne’s many times (12 time in one case).The oldest guest Gerry and Corinne
have hosted was in her 90’s, when she eventually decided she was too old for
wild camping. When letting us all know
various house-keeping rules and camp etiquette, Gerry, whom is also looking to
retire as soon as he can, would say, ‘for those who don’t know, and for those
too old to remember… etc. J’ we all love the way he relates to us all.
So we paint most days, fossick for garnets, chat round
the camp fire, or soak up Gerry’s wisdom and knowledge about the area’s
geology, fauna and flora and even astrology. There is no end to Gerry’s
knowledge, gleaned from over 40 years in the business and an insatiable yearning
to find out how things work.
The Ruby Gap under
Canvas Gallery Joint Exhibition 2013
Four entries by
yours truly
And then it is the end, we have a final ‘show and tell’
of the work we have produced, in the open air, on a couple of large tarpaulins
with rocks holding down the corners of our art. This is The Ruby Gap under
Canvas Gallery Joint Exhibition 2013, and will appear in all our CV’s as such.
I had been asked a couple of times to drive one or other
of the three 4WDs to various painting areas, and I am asked one last time if I
will drive the Land Rover the hour or two out of the National Park, which I
love!
Our lovely hosts
Gerry and
Corinne, with her display of silk scarves that she dyed using barks
and other natural dyes found locally
The motley crew
And so it all comes to a close. We say our good byes and go on with the rest
of our lives with the added experience that was Ruby Gap and all that it
entailed. I make my way to my hotel room
and the long awaited long hot shower and comfy bed that I can stretch out in (I
had developed a love/hate relationship with my sleeping bag J), that I have been
looking forward to for a few days.
Mike Banks
July 2013
