Alice Springs, Palm Valley - 10/11 August 2013

Decided to go to the Old Timers Market on Saturday morning (stop thinking of jokes about it - we have already covered the lot), only to find that apparently 'morning' doesn't really kick off in Alice until 11:00, and here we were thinking that we were terribly late getting there at 10:00. Rather than wait outside the gates with the other tourists who had made the same faux pas, we hit the bright lights of town.
Twenty minutes later with that task done, we slipped off to the National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame. What a fantastic place! Stories from the pioneer days in the Center and the struggles and achievements of the few women brave enough travel the dirt tracks from the end of the rail line at Oodnadatta. The museum also celebrates women who were first in their field to the present day. It is located in the old jail, so you get two attractions for the price of one. Who could resist?
Drove up to the top of Anzac Hill to see the sights of the thriving metropolis of Alice Springs. It's a bloody steep little hill - had use 1st gear on the last bit only to be overtaken by an Amazon warrior princess and her boy toy who were running up and down the hill for fun!!!! The sun up here obviously gets to some people.

Sunday was the day for Palm Valley which is a 22km 4x4 track just the other side of Hermmansburg. The sign at the start of the track says to allow 3 hours, which I thought must have been an exageration - silly me. In one way it was, as the time is for a return trip. It took us nearly 4 hours including a 2 km walk, climb, scramble from the end of the road to the actual valley, with the last 1 kilometer taking around 30 minutes in low range 4x4 - lots of fun and a great place to see. The closest naturally occuring relatives to the red cabbage palms in the valley are over 800 kms away.

The one at the back, behind the palms is a Cycad. These were around when the dinosaurs were all the rage.