Devils Marbles and a Snake

Monday 30^th May

Happy birthday Luke.  We hope you enjoy your first day at school.

We left TENNANT CREEK at about 10.00am and continued our journey south towards ALICE SPRINGS.   There was quite a strong cross wind which rocked us around a fair bit, so we kept our speed down to about 90pkh.  Our first stop along the way was at The Devils Marbles, which are about 115km south of TENNANT CREEK, and  just north of the small township of WAUCHOPE, and you can pronounce that however you like because we don’t know how to.

Now you’ve probably all seen pictures of the Devils Marbles, huge big round rocks precariously balanced on each other.  They are often advertised alongside Uluru and The Olgas as some of Australia’s natural wonders.  Usually the pictures do more than what the real thing actually is, and we kept an open mind about just what we would see.  Well, for once the pictures didn’t do it justice. 

They were amazing.  Huge granite boulders piled haphazardly on top of each other, some looking like they are due to topple at any moment. 

They are apparently formed by millions of years of erosion of the softer ground around them, and are just a small part of a huge slab of granite still buried in the ground under them.  They were visible over an area of about 50 hectares.  Some of them had been split in half by the action of the various metals imbedded in them being exposed to the weather.  An amazing example of nature at work.  

Absolutely fascinating and definitely a highlight of our trip so far.  They are right beside the road, and you literally drive right up to them.  Cameron had a ball climbing all over, around and in some cases, under them.  He certainly didn’t have the fear that I did, that they looked like they might topple over at any minute.  Needless to say the cameras were running hot.

Our next stop was for fuel and lunch at WYCLIFFE WELL, 20 or so kilometres further south.  This place is known as the UFO Centre of Australia, because of the numerous sightings of UFOs that have been reported there.  The road house and the adjacent Caravan Park were adorned with statues of little green aliens and UFOs.  Whether or not it was something in the local water we don’t know, but we didn’t see any while we were there.

While we were having our lunch in the car park, a large truck carrying a loader pulled in, and as usual Cameron went and had a chat with the driver.  Next thing he is sitting in the cab getting more truck driving lessons.

We continued south for another 100 odd km until we got to BARROW CREEK, which was established as an Overland Telegraph Station like the one at TENNANT CREEK.  In fact TENNANT CREEK and BARROW CREEK were adjacent Telegraph Stations in the old days, passing messages by Morse code to one another up and down the line.  Again the original buildings had been preserved. 

We had a look at the old buildings, and then wandered next door to the pub which was built not long after the Telegraph Station.

There were about half a dozen people sitting outside having a beer when we went into the bar.  Crikey did this place have atmosphere.  The walls, doors, windows, in fact everything was absolutely covered with graffiti, old hats, foreign bank notes, flags of various nations, posters, etc, etc.  Messages from travellers from all over the world. 

We had a beer and some chips, and while Christel and I were reading some of the literature on the walls, Cameron wandered outside, only to come rushing back in yelling “Mum, Dad, come here quick. There’s a man with a black headed python out here.” 

Sure enough, a road worker had turned up with a young python draped around his shoulders, and was showing it to the people seated outside.

He told us he had caught it a couple of weeks ago when it came crawling out of the scrub while we was working on the side of the road.  He was keeping it as a pet.   He said it was only a young one, about four and a half years old and was 180cms long. When fully grown it would reach up to 3 meters in length, and has often been described as the most beautiful snake in the world.  This one was certainly a beautiful specimen, as docile as anything, and was quite happy just wrapping itself all over the guy.

Naturally Cameron had to have a hold,

and even Christel overcame her fear and allowed the snake to be draped around her neck.  What a fantastic experience. 

Travelling on the road doesn’t get much better than this.

While we were enjoying the experience of snake cuddling, we got chatting to the other people and found out they were four young people from PARIS touring Australia before heading to New Zealand.  Like us, they found the snake experience absolutely amazing.

We left BARROW CREEK on a high and continued south, hoping to make the TI TREE ROAD HOUSE as our next overnight stop. This would leave us with a run of about 200km to ALICE SPRINGS tomorrow.  We got to TI TREE just on 5.00pm, and were soon set up in the caravan park beside the Roadhouse.  What an incredible day.