Hermits Hideaway – Serpentine Chalet Dam

Up at 6 am. For a change, I packed up and went for a walk for half an hour to a lookout. The sun was rising when I reached the lookout. There were spectacular views from this vantage point. To the west, the sun was striking Mount Sonder. To the east and south was a distinctive range of mountains, which caught the sunlight perfectly.

Then I cooked my breakfast, whilst the others came to the lookout.

After breakfast, it was a reasonably steep descent to Waterfall Gully. At this point there is a waterhole, although it looked a bit tepid and rank. However, it was a beautiful spot and we had morning tea m.

After morning tea, it was a walk for 9 km along the valley, up to the watershed and then down the other side. As with everything else here, the views are fantastic.

We stopped for lunch at Inarlanga Pass. There were palm trees in the pass, and it was extremely pleasant. We met a couple there who had been off track walking in the Chewings Range. They live in Alice Springs in the winter and in Sydney in the summer. They really like exploring the Northern Territory and seem to be extremely good at walking off track in desert environments.

They told us that the areas we had been walking through had been burnt out in the March 2023 fires. Some of the areas are badly scarred. They were happy because the fire has cleared out the spinifex making off-track walking much easier.  

After lunch it was an hour’s walk to reach our campsite at Serpentine Chalet Dam.

There is a bit of history to this site. There was a “chalet“ established here, but it closed down in the 1960s. In those days it took a full day to drive from Alice Springs to Ormiston Gorge, a distance that can now be done in less than two hours. The chalet was established to provide overnight accommodation to people driving to Ormiston Gorge.

There is a dam further up the gorge, which we walked to to check out. Further up is a second, smaller, dam and a very narrow chasm. There was water behind the dam, although it was not full. It looked a little brackish.

We gathered together for dinner and looked at the stars and satellites. It was a clear night. Then it was time for an early bed (8 pm).