THE MOUNTAINOUS HEART OF OZ
THE TRACK we were following had quickly turned to sand as we dropped into the wide bed of the ephemeral Hale River. The Patrol growled in response to the soft clinging sand as we turned to follow the river’s sandy course through the far east end of the MacDonnell Ranges.
The track occasionally climbed the bank to cut a corner in the stream but just as quickly returned to the soft sand of the riverbed, making this area one of the few ‘real’ four-wheel driving destinations in the East Macs. In one spot we splashed through a film of water, the last visible remnants of the flood that had coursed down through the valley a few months previously. What remained of the pool of water had been churned to mud by wild cattle, going by the tracks in the sand and the warning sign at the entrance to this little-visited nature reserve at Ruby Gap. I got out of the Patrol to see if there were any spoor of dingos, but the signs were all
