Rolling to the Rock: Day 12

After almost two weeks in the Red Centre we’ve seen our share of red rock formations that change colour from brown to purple to glowing orange depending on the time of day.

But it’s something else to have that occur every night around sunset right in front of your caravan, like a giant 65m high TV screen, as you kick back with a beer or eat dinner.

That’s been our lot for the past three nights at the Glen Helen Resort, located at the foot of the Glen Helen Gorge along the Finke River, 135km west of Alice Springs, or 252km from Kings Canyon if you’re coming the other way (see Day 11).

While not quite the “outback oasis” described in the brochure, this laid-back facility has quite a few things going for it, not least the only caravan park with live music and a bar in the West McDonnell ranges.

The Glen Helen Homestead has a colourful past going back more than 100 years, and there are photos in the bar showing the lodge before it was burnt down in 1986, and the original meat house before it was restored not long after.

Today it has 32 keenly sought after powered sites, along with grassy tent and unpowered sites, plus a mix of self-contained motel rooms, shared dorms and safari tents.

We paid $42 a night for a powered site, which is decent value considering it was $25 for a bush site (including hot showers) down the road at the Ormiston Gorge.

Like Kings Creek Station (see Day 9), the showers and dunnies aren’t flash and the bore water tastes earthy, and they make you pay for slow wi-fi (first half hour is free) and fuel ($2.20 litre/diesel).

But there’s free live music from April to November, with Melbourne musician Alex Aronsten getting the feet tapping each night we stayed from 7.30pm.

The roadhouse has a breakfast and lunch menu, or there’s pricier dinner options at the Namatjira Gallery Restaurant, which has prints and paintings from the famous Aboriginal artist on the walls.

There’s also a small gift shop, laundry, camp kitchen, fire pits, aviary and a swimming pool, although the best option for a paddle (as our kids discovered) is to take a short stroll down the Finke river to the gorge entrance, particularly as the sun drops in the late afternoon.

Glen Helen is also conveniently located close to some of the most popular walks and attractions in the West MacDonnell Ranges, including the colourful Ochre pits, Serpentine Gorge and the Ellery Creek Big Hole, a popular but icey cold swimming hole.

Just down the road is another contender for best Red Centre walk (see Day 7), the 7km/four hour Ormiston Pound walk that winds through a spinifex-clad gap in the range for stunning views into the distance, before rounding back through the floor of the gorge with soaring red walls.

However, don’t forget to bring a towel and bathers (as we did), as the only way back to the carpark was through a waist-deep water hole, requiring an invigorating jog, stripped down to underpants, through some of the iciest water I’ve ever experienced!