You will be picked up from your hotel in Alice Springs and will travel in a 4WD for this fascinating tour of Palm Valley in the Australian Outback. Listen to a fascinating commentary by your English-speaking driver along the way.
Leaving Alice Springs, cross the vast open Outback plains on the Namatjira Drive. About 130 kilometres south west of Alice Springs is the aboriginal community of Hermannsburg and just beyond it, the stunning expanse of Finke Gorge National Park.
The first stop of the day is at the Hermannsburg Historic Precinct founded by Lutheran missionaries in 1877. Hermannsburg was established as an Aboriginal Mission by two missionaries and today the historic township is a major attraction. Take a guided tour of its old stone buildings and the sand paintings that bespeak tales of the past.
Now begins your real adventure as your 4WD heads off the road and onto the dry bed of the Finke River, thought to be one of the oldest waterways of the world. As you drive along the bed of the Finke River, which has soaked this arid landscape for more than 130 million years, appreciate the still-lingering evidence of its flood-ravaged history. Continue along this route and see the magnificent amphitheatre there.
Follow the riverbed to the Finke Gorge National Park, where the imposing rock formations have been revered by the aborigines for centuries.
Venture further into the Gorge to the Palm Valley, an oasis in this arid region.
Here, you will disembark and walk amongst the unique formations of the rare red cabbage palms. These prehistoric red cabbage palms (Livistona mariae), extinct elsewhere, stand testimony as relics of a much wetter period.
Enjoy a picnic lunch here in the midst of this stunning contrast of lush vegetation and the arid landscape beyond.
Drive back to Alice Springs where your tour ends with a drop off at your hotel.