Devils Marbles

17/03/2010

A beautiful sunrise saw us up have a wander around at 6.30, a great time of day out here and surprisingly no flies to speak of. We headed off to Barkly Homestead at 8.30 where I was going to top up with fuel, 178.9 made me do a few calculations as I was told it was cheaper in Tennant Creek and I decided to go for it. We left the Barkly Highway and turned right into the Stewart Highway to check out the 3 ways for fuel, same price!!! We turned around and headed to Tennant Creek, we pulled over only to discover that the Anderson plug which supplies power to the caravan from the car had come undone and had ground itself to a pair ragged wires from dragging on the bitumen. I found the only auto electrician in Tennant Creek and I think that the only reason he is in business is that there is that no one else wants to live there. Well at least he was able to supply a new plug and had the appropriate gear to fix it, he also managed to work out why my parking lights on the van were not working. It would seem the person who had connected it had mixed up 2 wires, I will give myself a good talking to. On to the Devils Marbles which is 11 Klm south of Tennant Creek, we were told that it was well worth seeing and they were fantastic. They just look like a giant has been playing with huge boulders and stacking them up. It must be popular as when we pulled in around 3.00 there was only 2 other campers there by the time sunset came it was packed and the red of the sunset was fantastic. Did I say something about flies, these little micro flies just about carried us away so we decided to just put our fly hats on spray ourselves with fly spray and have a few quiet wines into the night. We did with great passion while working out where the stars were and how to calculate due South from the Southern Cross. Bed was a welcome destination after climbing the rocks, John and I climbed to the top of the highest rock which gave me a severe case of vertigo but it was worth it. We walked down all the dry creek beds the water that came through here during the last rains must have been enormous, it was great to just have an explore.