God's Marbles, and south to Alice Springs

After leaving Tennant Creek the drive south has been interesting, firstly we soon came upon what is known as the Devil's Marbles (I think Ken Duncan has named them God's Marbles).  We enjoyed walking around the area in a couple of places, looking more closely at this amazing formation.  It was also a lovely place to have morning tea, and it was time of day.

There are a number of rest areas, road houses along the way, so we called in at several of these to note any historic sites.  At Barrow Creek there is an old telegraph station which we were able to walk around and even inside.  There was also a place where the Central Mt Stuart is alegedly the centre of Australia, named by John McDowel Stuart, Mt Sturt, but name later changed.  There was an explanation about how we could find out the centre by making a template.  Anyway it is somewhere near the area.

There were lots of flowers along the way, and this has made the journey more enjoyable.  Lots of bright yellow boronia type flowering small shrubs, and today we saw lots of smaller daisies, particularly on the roadside. This is just the beginning of the wildflower season, so in a few weeks time it may be even more colourful.  We stopped and photographed some, but of course we never get to stop where we have seen them best.  It takes time to slow down and find a suitable spot to pull off the road, as we don't want to lurch into a ditch!

We spent the night at Ti Tree, which is a small aboriginal community, and roadhouse.  The caravan park was very pleasant with trees, green grass, and even a swimming pool (which now is probably not so appealing as the temp is getting lower).  It was interesting to call in to Aileron, with another roadhouse and van park, with also an art gallery and a giant sculpture of a black man at the top of a hill, and down at the foot of the hill a woman and child, also in giant size.  We enjoyed the art gallery, and came away with a painting (maybe Roger doesn't enjoy that as much as I do!).

It seems that the system is that the artists come in to paint at a lot of these galleries and are supplied with the canvass and paints (acrylic mostly) and brushes, and given some money for the painting and food for the day or so that they are there painting.  Some places give a certificate of authenticity, and/or a picture of the person with the painting.  We wonder if there are any indigenous people who do this direct.  The picture that has been added on the previous blog entry was painted on a rubbish bin cover (an old washing machine) for use at the  AIM church in Tennant Creek.  These artists are using Christian symbols as well in their art.  It would have been good to see more of that, but alas we had to move on from Tennant Creek on Monday before the art centre opened.

However, we are now in Alice Springs.  We have visited the old Telegraph Station here too, it is well preserved and restored.  There was also time to have a quick visit to the Information Centre, and a walk along the Todd Street Mall (some shops were closed by then), and some time to do the necessary grocery shopping.