Tag: outback

As previously noted, Mt Sonder is relatively modest in altitude and bulk, but it is particularly beautiful, especially when the sun is not too high in the sky.

What makes it even more beautiful – and this true of almost every mountain, hill, gorge and creek in and around the MacDonnell Ranges – is the fact that it sits within such beautifully-vegetated country.

Almost anywhere you look, it just gets better and better, the more closely you look.

You should never fail to look closely at all layers of whatever landscape you find yourself within – foreground through to horizon.

If you look at the watercolours painted by this region’s most famous artist, you can see that Albert Namatjira (1902-1959) understood this very well.

To reach the pictured location, you need to be able-bodied, but – in stable weather, at least – it does not involve a very long walk, nor an arduous/particularly hazardous one.

It still surprises me that relatively few visitors to such a magnificent place are prepared to walk more than a very few, very easy steps away from the car/bus park.

In winter, in a “good” year, some places in “The Red Centre” can surprise a first-time visitor by presenting a relatively soft, lush green “face”.

Ellery Creek Big Hole is a striking, dramatic destination at any time, but it does not always look the way it did on 17 June 2023.