further kilometres

In planning our trip members nominated what special things they wanted to do. Nancy wanted to see the Devil’s Marbles (Karlu Karlu) at dusk and dawn; Neil wanted to do some fossicking at Gem tree. We cannot yet compare the former with Uluru, but we were awe-struck by the brilliant glow on the rocks at sunset and then the ‘wow’ factor kicked at dawn. How glad we wer that we made the effort to rise at 6am for that early morning walk to catch the spectacular scenery at this sacred site for all Australians.

Today we fossicked for garnets some 30km from Gem Tree on the Plenty Highway. The site was a bit of a surprise as it turned out to be a hole in the red earth. We had picks and shovels, water and sieves and left to find the red garnets amongst the earth and quartz. Eventually we learned what to look for and we all managed to find a good number. Back at Gem Tree the expert sorted though our finds were sorted and to our surprise we all had managed to find some of value for would-be cutting and setting. No millionaires today. Just as enjoyable was a botanical/birding walk. More budgies, more zebra finches and a sighting of a grey falcon. Mulga (acacia aneura) is the dominant species here along with corymbia terminalis. The mulga ants build a fascinating circular nest decorated with dead mulga leaves around the edge. We were able to watch the ants carry the leaves which were about 3 times the length of the ant.

Despite the long boring road journeys between places (mulga, mulga and more mulga) it is worth the agony see such amazing places.

We are now at Alice Springs and it is cold cold cold- even during the day! If ever you are here, visit the Alice Springs Desert park. The spinifex pigeons - which we tried to photograph at Mary Ann Lake without success - were within camera range at the ASDP. The guides are extremely knowledgable and led us to three bush stone curlew. It is not the best time of year for flowering plants but the bird life was colourfull and plentiful. We can, however, now recognise 'Dead Finsh' if not by sight then by touch! It seems you can user the thorns to remove worts but the cure seemed worse than the problem. We have a week in Alce and will spend some time travelling in the MacDonnell ranges as well as taking in some culture.