The West MacDonnell Ranges

 We were heading out to spend the next five days camped at the Finke River, one hundred and thirty kilometres west of Alice Springs.

The Finke two-mile campsite has no facilities, and you can camp close to the river, on river rocks or further back under towering ghost gum trees.

It is also a mecca for groups of walkers much younger than we are who are completing parts of the two-hundred-and-thirty-kilometre Larapinta Trail. While we've been here, there have been three four-wheel drives based here and towing trailers to support the walkers with food and their accommodation in the form of both tents and swags. Each afternoon, when the walkers arrive back at base, they wander down to the river to cool off, remove the day's grime and sweat before they are fed and then off early to bed for the following day's walk.

There are more gorges in the West Macs than on the Eastern side, such as Simpson Gap, Standley Chasm, Elery Creek Big Hole, Serpentine Gorge, Ormiston Gorge and Redbank Gorge.

On our drive back into Alice Springs, we agreed that we couldn't spend another night in the cramped and dusty National Road Transport Museum Campground.

So we booked a powered site in the Alice Springs Tourist Park. It was our first powered site in just over three months. We were here to stock up and stayed for two days before heading off.