This first episode’s headline is neither a mistake, nor ironic.
If you live in or near to Alice Springs, the nearest ocean shore is more than 1,500 kilometres distant; most of Australia’s saltwater beaches are rather more than 2,000 kilometres away.
However, courtesy of the MacDonnell Ranges, which spread hundreds of kilometres east-west-ish from Alice, you have easy access to some very beautiful beaches.
(Alice Springs sits just north of one of the Ranges’ “Gaps”)
A few of those beaches even offer swimming, in spectacularly located, “permanent” waterholes,
The photo looks down on part of Ormiston Gorge’s (almost) permanent waterhole, and its beach.
No drone was deployed; I was standing atop a ridge on the western side of Ormiston Gorge, circa 135 kilometres west of Alice Springs, and easily reached via a good, sealed road.
Generally reckoned the most spectacular of all the MacDonnell Ranges’ gorges, Ormiston also has an equally impressive Pound.
Photo is copyright Doug Spencer, taken at midday on 17 June 2023.
As is true of every gorge in the MacDonnell Ranges, Ormiston’s “majestic landscape” aspect is just part of its allure; every gorge included in this series will make more than a single appearance.
Click this for an overview of the MacDonnell Ranges, plus a great many live-links to various aspects and individual locations.