Ross River Resort

We decided, on a whim, to stay the night at the Ross River Resort, some 85 km east of Alice Springs, and explore the East MacDonnell ranges a bit the following day. We drove the lonely Ross Highway as the sun was setting; ahead is one of the picturesque 'gaps' in the ranges.




The resort was built around an old homestead dating from 1898, with the original buildings forming the common rooms, and guest quarters in little cabins built much later. There were many nice old photographs showing the history of the place on the walls.



The bar area where we waited before dinner.



Dinner was hot and filling; nice for a rather frigid evening. I have a well-charred chicken parmesan and Darrin has garlic shrimp.



This was the sort of place where there are no TVs or phones in the little cabins, so everyone hangs out in the comfortable common room by the fire and chats or reads. We met an absolutely charming retired couple from Alice Springs and stayed up later than we'd intended, talking about everything from national health care to cowboy movies.

In this picture we were trying to capture the interesting construction style, where the relatively unfinished ceiling/roof floats above stucco walls that just sort of end.