Blogs from Devils Marbles, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 2

The Devil’s Marbles (also known as Karlu Karlu (round rocks) and Rainbow Serpents Eggs) are found in a slight diversion of the main Stuart Highway about 50k north of Whycliffe Well. It was a good place to stretch our legs after the 450+kms of driving through the morning and early afternoon. I was surprised at the beauty in these granite formations. Everywhere I looked, there was another formation with a boulder precariously leaning on another, or looking like it was just a round ball balancing on a flat piece of ground. After we had walked through and past a number of these formations, we drove off, wondering if this was it. We rounded the bend, and found the information billboard, which explained the significance of these to the local aboriginal people. These formations were much more ... read more

Woke up to a beautiful orange sunrise outside our tent this morning :) As I was packing up my stuff with the tent door open I felt something on my backside, thinking it was Mark I turned around only to be confronted by a horse!!! We set off down the Stuart Highway once more & first stop of the day was the Devil's Marbles - an interesting array of boulders sat on top of each other. They are composed of layers of rock which fall off like an egg shell! Some of the rocks even sound hollow where the outer shell has separated from the inner layers. After wandering around, scrambling up rocks & taking a few compulsory silly photos we headed down the road to Eliot, the UFO capital of the Northern Territory! After failing ... read more

Well, what did you think of the pics of the last blog? Yes we agree with you there. Well, don’t hold you breath for them on this blog because travelling has been the order of the day, yes, we know we said big km days were not for us, but Steve found an extra gear which meant we could cover an extra 10km per hour and use less diesel. By the way- are you all happy with the style and content of the blogs? Only readership numbers are down and advertisers are getting itchy feet. A board meeting was called to discuss the possibility of putting in more technical info then we both realised who wrote them so it’s back to the drawing board. Well let’s get on with it then. We got back to Alice ... read more

6th November 09 - 7th November 09 Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve Wasn't a long drive today down to Devils Marbles from Banka Banka. I got to the Marbles around noon so I had the whole afternoon to enjoy the surrounds. As you can imagine, it was fanastic... and kind of weird as well. There are so many of these huge round boulders. Whenever you see pictures of the Devils Marbles you always see that same image of the two huge rocks with someone stuck in the middle of them 'holding' them up (um just like the picture to the right - sorry)! Makes you think there are only a few of these rocks. No no no. They are everywhere! As I had all afternoon, I enjoyed just slowly making my way through all the rocks and ... read more

The happy backpacking family spirit that had been prevalent in the trip from Adelaide evaporated in Alice, as people went their separate ways and we boarded a big "bus" for the journey north to Darwin and Kakadu. There were only a few of the original party left and we guess we were as guilty as everybody else in sticking in our own group. The roads are sealed to Darwin, so the economies of scale make it a no brainer for the companies to put on a big vehicle. The limited sights are also pretty much just off the main highway and the first port of call were the Devils Marbles (or Karlu Karlu in local terms). The “eggs of the Rainbow Serpent” are huge granite boulders in the sandstone desert, that have cracked over the years ... read more