Private Tour: Western Desert Art

Arrive in Alice Springs and make your own way to your hotel. The afternoon is a town tour visiting Tjanpi Desert Weavers (a social enterprise representing hundreds of Aboriginal women weavers from remote desert communities), Many Hands Gallery and the Tangentyere Artists. The group gathers for dinner at a local restaurant (own expense). Overnight: Alice Springs. Meals: Not included.

Head west along Larapinta Drive into Tjoritja / West MacDonnell National Park. Simpsons Gap (Rungutjirpa) is a permanent waterhole cut through the quartzite range and a significant Arrernte dreaming site associated with giant goanna ancestors; several dreaming trails converge here. Angkerle Atwatye / Standley Chasm narrows to just 9m at its base, with the quartzite walls lighting up at midday. Ormiston Gorge (Kwartatuma) is a longer walk through the red walls of the gorge and pound, with the opportunity for a swim. Camp at Woodland Campground, Redbank Gorge.

Head further west to Papunya, where the modern Central Australian Aboriginal art movement began in 1971 when teacher Geoffrey Bardon encouraged local Luritja and Pintupi men to paint their ceremonial designs on a school wall. The Papunya Tjupi Artists continue that legacy with strong line-work and contemporary approaches to ancestral stories, supporting emerging artists alongside some of Australia’s leading contemporary painters. Continue to Ikuntji / Haasts Bluff, where Ikuntji Artists was established as the first art centre specifically for women of the Western Desert movement. Return via Roma Gorge, stopping to examine some of the most significant petroglyphs in Central Australia. Overnight: Woodland Campground, Redbank Gorge. Meals: B/L/D.

Drive to Tnorala (Gosse Bluff) Conservation Reserve, the exposed remnant of a comet impact 140 million years ago; the original crater was approximately 20km wide, now eroded to a ring of hills rising around 160m above the surrounding plain. Continue to the private bush camp at Rodna on the Finke River — the group has exclusive access to this site on one of the world’s oldest river systems, estimated at 400–450 million years old. An afternoon walk to Glen Helen Gorge before dinner at camp. Overnight: Bush camp at Rodna, Finke River. Meals: B/L/D.

After packing up camp, visit the Ntaria / Hermannsburg Historic Precinct, where a Traditional Owner guides the group through the Lutheran mission established in 1877. In this town, Albert Namatjira grew up and developed the watercolour style that brought him national recognition. Visit the Hermannsburg Potters, whose ceramic work draws on the same country that shaped Namatjira’s paintings. Then drive into Finke Gorge National Park for Palm Valley, where a relic stand of Central Australian fan palms (Livistona mariae) survives from a time when Central Australia received far more rainfall; their nearest relatives are thousands of km away. Return to Alice Springs. Overnight: Alice Springs. Meals: B/L.

The morning is at leisure before your departing flight. Airport transfer included. Meals: B.