Today we got organised and headed out to Standley Chasm. It is only about 53kms from Alice but the reason for getting going was that the best time for viewing here is between 11am and 1pm.
Standley Chasm is a cleft that has been carved into the rock leaving a narrow space with 80 mtr high walls, so read the brochure. One arrives at the entrance to the site via a gate announcing the aborigine name, pays fees at the kiosk and proceeds to walk. The walk is 1.2kms long over and along a dry creek bed, actually not dry but also not much water in it. It is an interesting walk with lots of ferns and very interesting tree shapes. At the end there is this narrow space, it almost looks like a fissure with rock walls reaching upwards, it seems like almost forever. We were lucky enough to be there when the sun was directly overhead and the colours and shadows were fantastic (there goes that overused word again). After lunch we did another walk this time to the lookout which turned out to be more difficult than we expected, a climb up a big hill on a narrow rocky track. Elaine covered about 3/4 of it, I managed the full walk but it took a longer than the specified 15 minutes.
When we paid our visitor fees we also paid to camp here for the night. Just before 5pm we and 2 hikers were the only campers but then another 5 vehicles arrived.
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