Today was packed full of interesting sights, but the one that stands out was Palm Valley; but that comes a little later in this post. First off was another gorge, this one called Red Bluff Gorge and as you by now can guess there was a wide dry sandy riverbed with lots of Ghost and River Gums that led to a narrow cleft in a wall of red sandstone and in that cleft there was a waterhole. This particular waterhole had its own supply of floatation toys to entertain the children of those families that neglected to bring their own "floaties".

After Red Bluff we called in at a town called Hermannsburg which was originally settled by a group of German Lutherans on a mission to civilize and bring christianity to the aboriginal community in 1877. The town was also the home of Albert Namatjira a famous Aboriginal water color artist and the artistic style or school that he started was (is ?) called the Hermannsburg school. There is now a modern aboriginal town on the site and the old Lutheran Mission is maintained as an historic display.

Like many pioneer stories both in Australia and the US the story of the generations that settled and pursued their mission at Hermannsburg is one of hardship and determination and to a modern person like me cannot really comprehend what drove these people.

One of the interesting tid-bits about this particular mission is that C.F.T. Strehlow, one of the early missionaries who arrived in 1894 undertook studies of the aboriginal languages of the area and in 1897 published the New Testamant in Dieir.

For Nina and I the highlight of the day was a side trip to a place called Palm Valley. We did not really know what to expect on this side trip other than that the sign at the start of the 4wd track said 22km to Palm Valley. So we were surprised when we arrived at the Palm Valley campground after 18km, but the road continued and so did we.

We soon discovered why this side trip was marked 4wd. The closer we got to "the valley" the more difficult the track became. The last 4 km was 4wd low range with soft sand, many rock steps, and lots of what would be called in Moab - "slick rock". The only bad news about this side trip was that it was late in the day so we did not have time to complete any of the hikes at the end of this trail.

Apart from the scenery the attraction of Palm Valley is that it is the home of a wide spread stand (within the valley) of Red Cabbage Palms. The interesting thing is that these trees are not found anywhere else in this region and the nearest stand of these palms is 1000 km away. The scientific mystery of how the trees got to this valley seems to be still unresolved though there appears to be some evidence that the trees may have been transported to this location by humans.

We spent the night back at the Palm Valley Campground in the overflow area, that gave us the best shelter from the wind.