A Town Like Alice

Tonight we find ourselves in the jewel of the outback Alice Springs. Investigation of "Alice" begins tomorrow.
Yesterday we left Tennant Creek and headed south stopping at the incredible natural phenomena Karlu Karlu or Devil's Marbles. Aboriginal Dreamtime stories say The Rainbow Serpent laid her eggs here and they are the "Marbles". It is such a surprise to see so many scattered about the landscape.

Some of them you imagine will topple and fall at any moment as they seem to defy gravity.

Others are so round and smooth.

Of course you tell yourselves that you won't be idiots and take silly photos and of course you SO do!!!

And then you encourage your other half to do the same.....

I have wanted to visit here since I was a little girl and it exceeded my expectations. I took so many photos it's just plain ridiculous.

We spent last night at a little spot called Wycliffe Wells which is basically a stopover for campers. We met a lovely couple called Sharon & Brian from NSW and joined them for an Aussie dinner, steak burgers with the lot and chips They were great company and as Brian is an avid NSW supporter there was much bantering between Gary & Brian as you can imagine. We went to bed after a beautiful warm day only to wake to a very chilly morning and cold breeze...never got warmer than 16 degrees C. You know I am a sucker for a creature or two and this little donkey at WW stole our hearts. He had a friend but she was not interested in making any new mates.

Our journey took us 356 kms south towards Alice Springs. We stopped and had a cuppa at Alleron which has a roadhouse, caravan parkand an art gallery (which was closed) and these huge sculptures one of which is atop a hill behind the gallery. It is of an aboriginal 'Anmatjere' man standing spear in hand as if keeping watch over the surrounding landscape. He is 17 metres tall and was created by Mark Egan. He stood alone for 3 years until Mark created his wife and child in 2008.

They are located down below in the camping ground and are depicted just back from hunting with a huge goanna on the end of the woman's  spear. Just fascinating.

Anyway after nearly getting our coffee blown out of our mugs we had a hasty lunch and headed off again.

We are settled in here at "The Alice" for a few days (pardon the photo I took it from the car as we flew past) It is supposed to be -1 in the morning brrrrr!
I had this idea that the landscape I would see would be barren and desolate and even though there has been good rain out here which is not usual there is a real energy out here. The colours are amazing. I love the red earth and the sage greens of the brush, ghostly trunks of the gum trees and vibrant yellow wattle everywhere. The screeching sulphur crested cockatoos taking flight being pursued by a menacing wedgetail eagle, flocks of bright green budgerigars flying overhead (much nicer than seeing them in cages) There is life and actitvity everywhere. Even as I write this I feel like I am not doing it justice.
That's this instalment done, time for a Tim Tam (they seemed to have followed me from home) and a cuppa.
Nite all,
Blessings Michelle xx