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The Marbles
Quick Steve help me!!! We drove past a place called Tennant Creek and arrived at the Devils Marbles, these are known to the local Aboriginal people as Karlukarlu, they are believed to be the eggs of the Rainbow serpent. Although eveyone has different beliefs according to scientists they are the granite remains of molten lava after millions of years of weathering. We decided to take a closer look at the rocks as they looked like they would just roll off at any given moment. After striking many poses with the rocks we came across a small camp ground right in the middle of the "marbles" so we set up camp here. There were quite a few people staying at the camp ground these included a tour group who were going to sleep up on some of the rocks! The sun was starting to come down so we headed up to one of the highest rocks and sat and waited. The sunset was amazing the "marbles" were casting all sorts of shadows on the ground getting longer and longer the further the sun went down. After having something to eat the people staying opposite us started jumping around and looking at something on the floor,
what could this be we said to ourselves. It was only the most poisonous spider in Australia, the dreaded red back spider! I have seen bigger spiders back in England, it was about the size of a 50 pence piece, how something that small could kill you is unbeliveable. Although there have been no reported deaths since they invented the anti venom was introduced but we still were feeling on edge all night! Phil and Ann decided to join the tour group and sleep on the rocks that night. After a few hours they came back down, Ann said Phil was snorring on the rocks, but he said it was it was so uncomfortable. Also they heard Dingo's howling pretty close to them so after Phil scared the pants out of Ann by saying they might get eaten, they hurried it back to the van and tent!
We left the Devils Marbles and headed towards Alice where we stayed the night, and early in the morning we left for Uluru (Ayers Rock), the drive to Uluru was about 400km, as we were nearing the famous rock every one was getting very exited. Nothing in Australia is as readily identifiable
as Uluru, although many books state that it is the worlds biggest monolith it actually comes second to Mt Augustus. The red rock which is 3.6 km long and rises 350 meters above the vast surrounding red sandy plain, taller than the Eiffel Tower!!. Its size has to be experienced in person to be believed, and two thirds of it is still underground. We wanted to do the base walk whick is 10km all the way around the rock but we didn't have time so we did the Mutitjulu walk and the Mala walk which were very good. We headed back to the sunset veiwing area and waited for the sunset, but it was cloudy, and instead of the rock changing different shades of red and orange, it went from brown to black!!! We stayed in the Ayres Rock resort and headed off in the morning to watch the sunrise and visit the Olgas.
The sunrise was about as spectacular as the sunset the night before, due to the cloud, so off we went to the Olgas. The Olgas stand about 30km from Uluru and are a bizarre collection of smaller, more rounded rocks, the Aborigines name these Kata
Uluru
Uluru at sunrise Tjuta which means many heads. We did the Valley of the Winds walk which was about 7.4km around the base of some of "the heads" there were some very unusal rock formations.
We then headed to Kings Canyon (Watarrka), which was about a 200km drive. The next morning we headed up to the Canyon, and we attempted the Kings Canyon walk which was 6.4km, this took us right over the top of the canyon walls and through all the gorges. The views were spectacular and half way through there was a place called the garden of eden. There were quite a few tropical plants growing there, makes you wonder how they survive in such a vast area, where everything around was just pretty much rock!!
Off we headed back towards Alice to say goodbye to the girls Lisa left on the Friday and Ann left on the Sunday. On the Friday we awoke to find that the van wouldnt start!!! after a lot of playing around with it and a few phone calls to the local garage it started! so we dropped Lisa off at the airport and went into town to get some shopping, as we got
The Olgas
Many heads in the van again the same happend so we were stranded, one tow truck, a fuel pump and a wodge of cash later she was back on the road raring to go. The last night in Alice was the sunday, which was
Ann's last night with us. Phil took her to the airport on monday morning, where they had to part each other after being together for 3 months. When he got back, we started the long drive to the East Coast and Townsville.
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