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Hidden Gems of The Plenty Highway and East MacDonnell Ranges

8th – 13th May 2025

Thursday – Friday: The Plenty Highway

”The Plenty” is a classic 500km outback drive with a long, colourful history. It started out as a rough track connecting Northern Territory cattle stations to western Queensland and eventually became a bit of a rite of passage for 4WD travellers. It was once infamous for its brutal corrugations and bulldust holes big enough to swallow a caravan, but these days those horror stories are mostly in the past. The road’s gradually being sealed, though there are still plenty of long, dusty stretches, with bulldust, to tackle.
If you haven’t come across bulldust before, it’s a fine, powdery red dust created when vehicles break the surface of dirt roads. The dust settles back onto the track, filling dips, potholes, and ruts, making the road appear deceptively flat — until your vehicle suddenly drops into one. Hitting a deep bulldust hole at speed can cause serious damage. Visibility’s another issue. When an oncoming vehicle stirs it up, bulldust hangs thick in the air, completely obscuring your view just as the other vehicle passes — a dangerous moment if there’s more traffic coming the other way.

Despite this fearsome description we thoroughly enjoyed our drive on The Plenty. Our first stop was Tobermorey Station to refuel the vehicle ($2.85/L !!) and re-caffeinate us. The Station is a green oasis in this remote country.

Driving in to the Station this young man was leaving for a mustering job, taking his muster dogs, and puppies, with him.
This gives the traveller an idea of what happens out here when it rains!
Just finished our coffee and standing beside the old truck that has become the fire pit.
For the next couple of hundred kilometres the gravel road was generally in good condition with only small corrugations, though one section had many bulldust ‘dips’.
This caravanner wasn’t so lucky. Out here in the Outback, there’s an unspoken rule — you never leave someone stranded. He’d already been waiting over an hour by the time we came along, and apart from our friends, who we knew were about an hour behind us, not a single other vehicle came through. It took some time to get him going again, and later that evening when we found a flat patch off the track to camp only one more car came through. Moments like that remind you just how vast and isolated this country can be — and how much we still rely on each other out here.

After a very peaceful night camped just off the track and awakening to perfect blue skies, with temperatures not anticipated to rise above 26°, we headed off. Other than a massive termite mound and the beautiful Harts Range appearing, it was an uneventful drive through Mitchell grass plains to Gemtree Cattle Station.

Termite mounds are unique to northern Australia. The termites that live in this mound collect the surrounding spinifex and store it in the mound. Mound design is very complex, ensuring ventilation, humidity and heat control, and protection from predators and the heavy rains that affect the area.
The Harts Range across the Mitchell grass plains.
Here we refuelled (expensive, but not as bad as Tobermorey – $2.45/L), camped the night ‘out the back’ and got all the good info on the road through Arltunga from the very helpful store manager.
And we may have indulged in a little treat to have with our coffee before we left.

Saturday: Binns Track and Arltunga

We left the Plenty here to join the Binns Track to explore Arltunga and the East MacDonnell Ranges. Gold, “rubies, and zircon were discovered here in about 1886. The rubies turned out to be garnets, but that doesn’t stop today’s fossickers – with a free camp site ubiquitously called the ‘Mud Tank Zircon Field’ being on most fossickers’ bucket lists.

The photos above and below show what an absolutely beautiful drive this is. The road was in great condition for the most part, with just a few corrugated patches. The only real surprise was a dry creek bed with about 100 metres of soft, deep sand — definitely enough to keep the driver wide awake.

The miners brought here by the 1886 gold rush created the town of Arltunga. Sadly as the gold fizzled out so did the town. In its heyday, it had stores, a police station, a lockup, and of course, miners’ cottages. These days, all that’s left are the remnants of the old stone buildings.

The Police Station has been restored. When the police left Arltunga the remaining miners pulled it to pieces looking for the gold that was rumoured to be in the walls of the building.

Arriving in the East MacDonnells midafternoon we found a little track that led to a flat area alongside the dry Ross River and camped there for the night, ready to explore tomorrow.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday: East MacDonnell Range – N’Dhala Gorge, Trephina Gorge, John Hayes Rockholes

N’dhala Gorge is a “cultural treasure house of petroglyphs, which are recordings of stories in art form by Eastern Arrernte ancestors and are still part of their living culture”. It’s estimated these petroglyphs are around 2,000 years old, though some possibly date back 10,000 years.

This rock is weathered and the petroglyph described above didn’t photograph well, but if you look closely you’ll see it.
Most of the petroglyphs were clearer, like this one.
The walk to the petroglyphs was short, but very pretty.
Some of the rock formations were quite intimidating.
Those ghost gums! I was fascinated with just ‘how’ white they were. They look as if someone has applied a thick coat of paint.

Leaving N’dhala Gorge we headed for Trephina Gorge where we set up camp and then did the 2.5km Grade 5 (ie hard) Panorama Walk.

Yes, every hike seems to start with a climb. Being a ‘panoramic’ walk it was destined to be a BIG climb.
There was no denying the amazing panoramic views though. If you look around the bottom right of this photo you can see our motorhome, way down there!
And we made it to the top. The peak is only about 10 metres in diameter which gave us stunning 360° views.

Monday morning we left early to do about half of the Ridgetop Walk, another Grade 5 hike. The full hike is 18km.

Steve taking a breather about half way up.
It’s such ‘big’ country out here, it’s hard to do it justice with a photograph.
It was a tough hike. It seemed to go up forever, and the trail was not easy to walk on.

Back at camp after hiking just over 10km we slept well that night.

Heading to Alice Springs today, but not before a little adventure at John Hayes Rockhole. The road in started off easy enough but quickly turned into a proper low-range 4WD track, especially near the end where it was basically just a jumble of rocks!

We tackled the Chain of Ponds hike, a stunning loop that takes you along the rim of the gorge before descending into it to follow a series of beautiful waterholes. There were a few tricky climbs to scramble back out, but it was absolutely worth it. Both of us loved the whole experience, and the rough drive in just added to the sense of adventure.

This is the gorge. We walked to the far end, then descended into it, before climbing out on the other side to complete the loop.
Having a rest and admiring those beautiful gorge cliffs.
There were many of these beautiful crystal clear ponds in the gorge.
And so we come to what would be a waterfall during the wet season, and where we can follow the gorge floor no longer. As you can see by those cliffs, the climb out was a challenge, particularly for me with my short legs.
The wild flowers are beginning to bloom – so delicate in such a harsh landscape.
Last on our list before finally hitting the bright lights and civilisation of Alice Springs was checking out Corroboree Rock which is another place of great significance in this region to the Eastern Arrernte people.

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