Not a yawning chasm, and I didn’t mind the gap at all

With the last session of the conference finishing during the morning, we had a bit of time to do some sight-seeing. We managed to locate a hire car (we only needed “small” for the three of us, but the smallest they had was an 8-seater van, which they hired to us at the small rate, so that was all good!), and headed out to the west of Alice Springs.

We visited the remarkable Standley Chasm (guaranteed not to generate yawns), which is probably about 50m long, 7m wide and 80m deep. We arrived too late in the day to catch the 15 minutes of sunshine that drop down to the bottom all too briefly.

On our way back to Alice Springs we called in at Simpsons Gap, which is another famous gorge. This one is a little wider than Standley Chasm, and has more water at the bottom. The afternoon sun set the red rocks aglow on the west-facing side of the gap, and the moon was rising over the ridge.

I took quite a few photos, so you can click for a page of Standley Chasm, and then continue to the photos of Simpsons Gap.