16th May - Alice Springs - 333 kms today 4,216 kms so far

We had a slow start today because we didn't have much planned for the morning.  I wanted to pick up the DR but it wasn't ready.  The mechanic had checked the main bearings and the big end and they were all fine.  He thought the noise was definitely coming from the piston, but although a new piston was needed at some stage I could finish off the trip as it was.  He had found that a plastic plug on the engine casing had cracked and was gluing it overnight and hadn't yet reinstalled it.  So Alan and I went off to the AGM site for some breakfast.
After brekkie Alan took me back to Desert Edge and I picked up the DR finally.  I bought some engine oil and some oil for the foam filter and headed back to our digs.  I also bought a padlock for the shipping container.  We arranged to meet at the Araluan Gallery to check out the display on craters, crocodiles and the Strehlow family who lived at Hermannsburg.

Gosse Bluff wasn't a crater I found out, but the remnant of the crater floor that had been thrust up by a rebound of the earth's crust after the impact 146 million years ago.  Wolfe Creek crater was only 300,000 years old which is relatively young.  Carl Strehlow took over the abandoned Hermannsburg Mission in 1894 and ran it for 30 years until he died of dropsy on the way to find medical treatment.  His son Ted became very interested in the culture of the local Aranda people and gained their trust and collected a huge amount of artefacts, photographs and film of the Aranda ceremonies.  The collection is held by the Araluan Gallery but much of it is sacred and off limits for display.
Alan was due to attend the Extended Nat Comm meeting with all the other branch officials in the afternoon, so I rode out to Hermannsburg to see the Lutheran Mission I had just read so much about. 

I passed a memorial to Albert Namatjira on the way there.  The mission was still much as it had been when closed in 1952. 

Hermannsberg Mission

Many of the buildings were intact including Strehlow's house, which was now a cafe.  I had a huge helping of lasagne for my lunch there. 

The Mission had many trials and tribulations one of which was unreliable water supply and its extreme isolation.  In 1935 a group of artists donated enough paintings to raise sufficient funds to install a pipeline from a permanent spring about 8 kms away and this fixed the water problem.  Isolation couldn't be fixed and this made it hard for the Lutheran Church to support the Mission and it eventually closed in 1982 and the land was handed back to the local aboriginals.  There is a fairly large township there now but it is off limits for non-aboriginals.  One interesting development at Hermannsburg was that the Christian message and the Mission was maintained by some of the Aboriginal converts after the European ministers left and this demonstration of administrative ability led later to more self-managed Aboriginal communities.
As I rode back to Alice Springs I came across a horse racing track in the bush. 

It had a large oval track bounded by a white pipe fence and some irrigation pipes. I could imagine a race meeting being held there. There was also a floral tribute at the side of the road to a man called Oliver who died in 2012 aged 30.  These sort of tributes are fairly common in the remote areas of Australia

I decided to stop at Standley Chasm on the way back as it was only a short distance off the main road.  The Chasm was on private land and the owners charged $10 to enter. 

The access track  was much different from what I remembered from 1981 and it took a while to get to the Chasm.  It was very striking with red/orange vertical walls only a few yards apart.  On the way back I came across a group of people attending to a woman who had tripped and broken her arm.  The ambulance officers were there and I was asked to help stretcher her out of the gorge to the ambulance.  The main group of helpers were Ulyssians from the Darling Downs Branch and one of them was an ex-ambo, so he knew how to handle the situation.

I found Greg Rees when I got back to the AGM site and I picked up my shirt.  While I was getting on the DR another rider from Portland started to talk about DR's and his in particular, which was all fitted out for a long trip on dirt roads.  He was planning to go across the desert to Perth from the Olgas and then head north to the Gibb River Rd and returning to Alice Springs down the Tanami Track.  I got his email because his experience would be invaluable for Alan and I.

The night ended with a Beach Party at the AGM site with live music and lots of people dressed up in beach wear.  They even had an artificial beach to dance on!  I met some of the Melbourne Branch members and arranged to meet up at 8 am for the big Parade tomorrow.