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Australia
Stunning views at Palm Valley
We’re sitting in the middle of Australia at a random campsite with a bunch of people we’ve never met eating their cheese and biscuits and drinking their wine.
It’s got the makings of a horror movie or a thriller, but I don’t feel nervous or trapped, quite the opposite, in fact. We’d just finished a walk in Cycad Gorge in the Finke Gorge National Park when they called us over.
They had driven past us and asked if we wanted a lift, we didn’t and couldn’t have fit in the car with the two couples even if we did, but it was such a lovely gesture and we were all smiles as we headed back to camp after the beautiful walk through large cycads and palm trees, over rocky outcrops and past watering holes.
“You guys look like you need a drink,” one of them called out as we wandered past.
And, as it turns out, we did need a drink.
That’s the thing about travelling through the Australian outback, you can feel completely isolated one minute, like there is not another soul anywhere around. But then you meet a bunch of travellers who reach out and instantly become your friends.
We had taken the Meerenie Loop from Kings Canyon, through native Aboriginal land* into Palm Valley in the Finke Gorge National Park. It was a long, heavily corrugated road, with beautiful views along the way.
It took us twice as long as it normally would, not only because Ade drives slowly to get better fuel efficiency (truly, he’s like a grandpa driving at 80 kilometres everywhere we go), but also because we were travelling with a family we met at Kings Canyon who were towing an older, non-off-road van.
They were nervous about the drive but also wanted to get to Palm Valley so we agreed to keep an eye on each other on this somewhat challenging and deserted road. They were a little way behind us so we kept stopping to make sure they were safe before continuing along the road.
It can be lonely on the outback roads, and a little unsettling when there’s nothing around and barely any traffic.
We finally left them at the turn off to Palm Valley, they didn’t want to risk going any further as the road ahead was meant to be even more treacherous than the one we had just bumped our way along. So they headed for Hermannsburg, a nearby town, famous as the birthplace of Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira.
We drove on, through dried riverbeds and over rocky, guttered roads, taking in the expanse of nothingness all around us. We bounced our way through a shallow river crossing and over large rocks. It’s an eerie feeling being completely on your own in the middle of the outback and I’m sure I gasped more than once at the state of the roads and the barrenness surrounding us.
But we eventually found our way to the national park and on to the campsite. No sooner had we finished setting up than we got chatting to the young couple parked next to us, turns out they were the travel bloggers from Canada that we had heard about while staying in Yulara. The country is so vast and yet when things like that happen, it feels so small.
They, Max and Oksana, own the website Drink Tea and Travel, a name I just love, of course, and evidently they have quite a following. So much of a following, it seems, that they were able to travel to Australia despite it being the middle of a pandemic and the country being in lockdown.
They were a lovely couple with a neat little Troopy that had storage for everything – it was very insta friendly and very easy to set up. We couldn’t help thinking about the contrast with our Mitsubishi Delica, which took a lot longer to set up and was crammed full of stuff – not particularly insta-friendly. It wasn’t the first time we wondered if we had brought too much stuff with us.
But I digress.
We first tackled the Arankaia Walk, a short two-kilometre trek through Cycad Gorge and up around a rock ledge. Two kilometres from the carpark that is. We had set up the Delica with its awning and zip-in tent so we walked to the car park.
Walked four kilometres before embarking on the two-kilometre walk.
We wandered through giant cycads and palm trees, past watering holes and rocky outcrops. This area is home to the Red Cabbage Palm, which is found only in Australia and really only in this area. Apparently there are more than 3000 of them in Palm Valley so it’s quite a sight to see them. It’s an ancient landscape and wandering through the giant palms it’s easy to imagine you’ve stepped back thousands of years.
And it was on our way to the carpark that first we met the two couples who offered to feed and water us.
We spent a lovely hour or two chatting to them about travelling across Australia and enjoying their hospitality.
In the early evening we took another short walk, this time to a nearby lookout at sunset and watched as the rocks and the scrub around us changed colour as the sun descended.
We were back at the Delica before dark, but Ade hadn’t had quite enough, so went back to get photos of the huge expanse of stars, while I sat at the van reading and trying not to feel nervous about the fact that he was somewhere out there on his own in the Australian scrub in the pitch black.
The following day we took off on the five-kilometre Mpaara walk, which started out a little underwhelming, though there was a funny little WIFI hotspot where I could get phone reception if I put my phone in one specific spot. It was the only place in the park either of us had any network (note: the dish only worked on the Telstra network).
We walked through scrub along a dusty track, completely uninspired by the walk. But then we came across a series of information boards that tell the story of the local Aboriginal community, the Western Arrernte people and their dreamtime story of the Tawny Frogmouth man and the Pangkalanga Devil Man.
We were completely enthralled and fascinated to learn about this part of Australian life
And then we rounded a crevice into the canyon and were awed by the views ahead of us. We ambled up the rock face into what looked like a natural amphitheatre and up to another lookout with views across the valley.
A stunning display of red rock towers and River Red Gums filled the landscape around us. Striking red rock formations spewed across the landscape. We followed the path up and over the edge of the amphitheatre and found more stunning views on the other side. Views that seemed endless.
Before we had left for the walk we had promised each other we wouldn’t stop to talk to anyone, we had too much cleaning to do back at the van, and that if we saw anyone we’d hide so we didn’t have to talk to them.
That lasted all of about five seconds.
We stumbled across David and Amanda early on in our walk, just before we got to the amphitheatre. We stopped to stay hello, fully intending to continue on our way, but then of course we got chatting, and an hour later we were still there, on the edge of the amphitheatre chatting, we chatted to them all the way back to the campsite and then joined them at their fire after dinner to chat some more.
They spend many of their days travelling around the world and across Australia, in a Troopy.
We had lots to discuss.
So, after an underwhelming start, the Mpaara Walk was actually quite spectacular, one of the most beautiful walks we’ve done anywhere in the world. It even rivals the walk at Kings Canyon for its sheer beauty.
But Palm Valley wasn’t just about the views and the stunning landscapes, the people we met were some of the friendliest we’ve come across.
We feel so fortunate that we’ve been lucky enough to meet such lovely people on our adventures. It’s one of the things I love about travelling, you form instant connections with people, whether they’re from your own country or somewhere else, because you talk about so much in a very short amount of time. And you bond over the love of adventure and exploring new places.
*You need to get a permit to travel on the Mereenie Loop, it’s easy to obtain in Kings Canyon, where you can also check road conditions before heading in to Palm Valley.
Read more about our Australian adventures here.
You can watch our experiences in Palm Valley on YouTube here.
Fast Facts
We travelled in 2021.
We camped at the campsite in Palm Valley.
We were here for three nights.
Was it long enough? We managed to do all the walks in that time.
Highlights: It’s hard to describe just how beautiful the Australian outback is. Walking through it is not only a visual experience but a spiritual experience as well. The outback has a feel like no other place we’ve been, like it has a soul all of its own. And learning more about Aboriginal culture is priceless.
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