The valley of the Palms and the Lutheran Mission

26 August, 2007

Naomi's father and his partner, Jenny, were up this weekend before shunting off on a road tour of the local sites.

They were kind enough to organise a trip to Hermannsburg and Palm Valley with Naomi and I.

Hermannsburg used to be a large Lutheran mission out from Alice Springs and the old church was kind of cool.

The church interior is great with no one in it. Austere and made from stone so that its nice and cool inside. The benches kind of hurt to sit on but I suppose it would keep you awake.

Jesus. Still looks white even though he was from the middle east (sorry, can't help but point out stuff about religion that we don't question). Some local folk don't kill donkeys because they call them Jesus horse.
My favourite building, the morgue.

It was so tiny. The slab took up much of the interior space.

This place also is the birth place of Albert Namatjira who was a famous water colour artist in the area. Go look him up.


Then we all piled back into the bus and rode out to Palm Valley. Some great shots out here.

This was a young Butcher bird that raided our rubbish and was altogether to nosey for his own good so I tried to catch him. He was was too quick though so it became quite apparent who was the novice at this rubbish stealing business.

So much information was just living in the rocks in this area. This was a fig tree that had grown on bare rock with roots hanging off looking for water. It was a natural bonsai tree due to the harsh environment. Best rock climber I ever saw.

We all stacked back in the bus and went home. Easy weekend up here in the top end.