Finke - Watarrka

September 9-29, 2007

Click the photos to see enlarged versions. Click your back button to return to this page. Hold your mouse pointer on the photos to see captions.

	Two major national parks -- large yet almost unknown.
Finke Gorge. We show you far more than Palm Valley, the only part of the park that is heavily visited. Watarrka. We go beyond the well known Kings Canyon and take you deep into the Watarrka wilderness. Great scenery. Pools, gorges, spectacular clifftop views, desert sands and more. Wildflowers. The conditions this year mean that we should enjoy the best wildflower display this century.

Section 1: Finke Gorge National Park: September 9-19
We begin with a visit to Palm Valley where we do a walk up the creek, beyond the areas visited by day trippers.
	We then follow the Boggy Hole 4WD track south to the Watarrka Road, stopping to do a number of short walks along the way. Boggy Hole, shown at left, is one of the largest permanent waterholes in the region.
This section finishes with a night in budget accommodation at the Kings Canyon Resort.

Section 2: Watarrka National Park: September 19-29

The following morning our walk begins as we follow the tourist track up to the top of the range and along to Kings Creek. From this point onwards, we may see no one else until the walk is over. We follow Kings Creek north into an area of rugged rock formations and hidden water holes, stopping to spend two or even three nights in one spot as we explore the rock maze around us. Eventually, we reach the eastern boundary of the park and head south to a large permanent waterhole.

	We follow the southern edge of the range west, stopping at a number of permanent pools along the way. We may even walk out into the dunes on the top of the range and spend a night in a very different environment.
Watarrka has been a special place for thousands of years as is shown by the rock carvings and paintings we will encounter along the way.

Terrain and difficulty. The walk begins with a steep climb along a marked trail. Much of the walk is along flat rock ledges but there is some rock hopping where you have to move over fairly rough country. Portions of the walk go over soft sand which is generally slower and more tiring than walking over rock. The scrub should not be much of a problem, but this can vary from year to year and there may be some sections of fairly thick scrub which will slow our progress. Although there are some moderately difficult sections, overall the terrain is as easy as you can find in central Australia. Combine this with stopping more than one night at some camp sites and you have one of the easier walks we offer in the Red Centre.

Your rewards are spectacular scenery, wildflowers and an incredible wilderness experience no other operator can offer you.

To see more photos from the walk, please click the links below. Please be patient, with so many photos the gallery pages will take a while to load. Finke Gorge Photo Gallery Watarrka Photo Gallery Click here to see a PDF file of the detailed trip notes. If you know someone you think would enjoy this trip, please click the link below to send them a link to this page. Forward to a friend