West MacDonnell Ranges Part2.. Attack of the lizard!!!

Friday, Feb 18th we were up at 6 am to see the sunrise.  Had a big breakfast and did a short bush walk from camp to the Glen Helen Gorge.  Then we began driving back east towards Alice and stopped at the Ormiston Gorge around 8 am.  We went to see the large waterhole where we discovered  a camper taking an early morning skinny dip.  Next we headed for the Ghost Gum Walk which led to a lookout with spectacular views of the gorge and the waterhole.



We met a lovely lizard (lacey monitor) on the steep rocky path who needed a little coaxing to allow us to pass.  At about 80cm long he wanted to stand his ground!!! .... got some good pics and a video of him slinking off into the grass.  Don't think he was too impressed.   If we wanted to complete the entire loop of this track, we would have had to swim across the river due to the recent high rainfalls in the area so we headed back the way we came down the steep rocky path.  By the time we finished this bush walk it was about 9:30 and already 30C and 3 litres of water later.  It's going to be a very hot day here!!

Our last stop was to revisit the Standley Chasm but we were still a little early to see it in full sunlight.  It was just before 11..... but still beautiful and brighter than yesterday.

We headed back to Alice to get cooled off, relax a little and get ourselves organized.  We are staying at the Stuart Caravan Park (third park visited in Alice).  Tomorrow we drop the motor home off at 8 am and head to the airport for our flight to Brisbane where we will begin the next leg of our exciting journey. Hope we have better internet access! No change in the bird and lizard hits so far.  Hope we have zero hits in Queensland.  Cheers