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I must have closed my eyes eventually as it is now 5am and we are being woken up. It is still pitch black, just a hint of colour on the horizon. It is freezing outside of those swags, but inside I'm so toasty warm, I contemplate staying there forever. Unfortunately, I needed to get out of the comfort bubble, and we packed up camp and all boarded the love bus for the final push to Alice Springs. The sunrise again was spectacular. All is quiet on the bus, everyone sleepy, with some Aboriginal music playing through the speakers, watching the landscape go by and grow lighter minute by minute, it got me thinking of days before white settlement, and how peaceful it would have been to wake up to this view every morning, with nothing to spoil the serenity, except the crackle of the fire, and the small chatter of the group as it wakes up. Lovely. We stopped at one point to get amazing sunrise photos, climbing up onto the trailer for a better shot.
I got to talking with Kim up in the front seat and got very excited to learn we would be travelling through Tennant Creek that day, as I had relatives who lived there for a very long time when I was growing up. It would be cool to see where they called home. Also they used to live in a tiny place called Barrow Creek, where my aunty was a school teacher. There is an Overland Telegraph Repeater Station at Barrow Creek, where Kim says she sometimes takes the groups, but usually the one at Tennant Creek is the main stop. She said we should go to Barrow Creek, so I could check it out. I was rather excited and could hardly contain this all day.
We stopped for petrol and a toilet break in Tennant Creek, where I discovered the floor of the service station was covered in newspaper articles from the Tennant and District Times. This was the biggest town we had seen in days, and it was a surprise to drive into as there is nothing surrounding it for miles and miles and miles! There are many shops and pubs, and lots of houses. It was a very clean and well kept town, and surprisingly green! And then before you had a chance to take it all in, it was behind us again. Next stop the Devil's Marbles!
Wow! We saw them on either side of the highway as we pulled up and it was even more amazing than I had previously imagined. so many round rocks! Not just the two marbles that you usually see pictures of, there are literally hundreds and hundreds of rocks in all shapes and sizes scattered around the place. Kim drew us a little story in the dirt and told us some history about the place, which was really cool.
The Devil's Marbles, known as Karlu Karlu to the local Aboriginals, is one of the oldest religious sites in the world. They are gigantic round granite rocks, shaped by erosion and weathering, and some parts are falling off in great big chunks, which looks so cool. There are many Dreamtime stories surrounding the Karlu Karlu, most are sacred and secret so white people do not know them. One of the stories we do know, is about 'Arrange', the ancient ancestor who was walking through the area making a hair-string belt, a traditional garment worn only by initiated Aboriginal men, as he twirled the hair to make the strings, he dropped clusters of the hair to the ground, which turned into the big red rocks we see here today.
We set off on an adventure through the marbles. It was a relatively flat and easy walk along a path. We did however jump up and around through the rocks. Oh my god the flies! So many flies!!!!! They are up your nose and climbing into every orifice they can get their sticky little feet into. It is mental, I have never experienced anything quite like it! I now understand the reasoning behind the Cork hat, and started to wish I had one. Kim showed us the fly dance, which involved dancing around maniacally while flailing your arms. Not surprisingly, it actually worked. There were a few places to take your fun tourist snaps that Kim got us to pose for, such as squashing your friend under a rock, and also she pointed out the teddy bear anus', the little round sticking burry things.
After taking in some fresh (fly filled) air and having a rest on one of the boulders and one thousand photos later, particularly Josh and Hannah's jump shots on top of a huge marble, which resulted in Hannah nearly becoming stranded on top, we all boarded the bus again, where Kim did something strange and handed us rolls of tin foil. She told us about Wycliffe Well, Australia's UFO capital. We needed to create tin foil hats to stop the aliens from reading our thoughts, so we spent the next half hour or so busily occupied with making strange foil creations - hilarity ensued. Kim is a diabolical genius, not only coming up with fun ways to get us involved in the sights and places we would be visiting, but also to keep us from becoming bored with what could be a really monotonous journey along a straight road. Kim is now my new favourite person in the world.
Arriving at Wycliffe Well, the service station was turned into an alien museum, with so much alien paraphernalia, I thought our bus must have gone through a wormhole and somehow arrived at Area 51. We had a group photo outside with the aliens and the owner of the Big 4 Holiday Park which was next door, asked if he could post a photo of us on his facebook page. We all signed a release form, but to this day, there is still no sign of it anywhere on their pages. Luckily we took our own photos.
After all the fun of the aliens, we continued our journey to Barrow Creek. The landscape became mountainous, and the area would be beautiful to explore on foot. Arriving, Kim took us inside the Repeater Station, and mentioned the history behind the place and left us to explore on our own. After the standard photo of me in front of the sign to send to the rellos (Aussie slang for relatives), we wandered around the 'town'. iI took all of two minutes. Noteworthy was the graves of the stationmaster and linesman killed by Aboriginals on 23rd Feb 1874, and the Barrow Creek Hotel. The location of the Peter Falconio disappearance was about 13km north of Barrow Creek, which was the closest settlement to the site, so that is something else it is famous for. After a quick wander through the pub, which was full of lots of interesting things (seems all pubs in the outback collect stuff) and asking the publican if she knew my relatives (she didn't, as they lived out of town on the homestead), we were waving goodbye to this tiny speck on a map. It was a novel experience being in the middle of nowhere place that my relatives lived for many years, and I was supremely chuffed to have visited. Big thanks to Kim for taking us there!
A long drive later, we stopped at the Ti-tree roadhouse for more cold drinks and a leg stretching experience. I think we pretty much stopped at every little place along the way here, although I slept most of the journey between Barrow Creek and Ti-tree.
We then came to Aileron Roadhouse, the first thing we noticed from a distance was the giant statue of an Aboriginal holding a spear on top of the hill. On arrival we discovered there were lovely giant red kangaroos out the back, we got up close and personal with one as Kim fed him an apple. We wandered into the Anmatjere Art Gallery, where they sold many local Anmatjere people's artworks and crafts. All of the paintings came with artist biographies and the owner told us how he kept the money in the community as most of the money went to the artists. I found a gorgeous panting of 'Bush Medicine' painted by a local young mother. It was pretty awesome, so I purchased that for my own mother. We found out the art gallery had commissioned the giant sculpture standing 17 meters tall and weighing 8 tonnes, along with the other sculpture of an Aboriginal woman and child. There was a massive wedge tailed eagle in a tiny enclosure out the front of the pub. Rather sad looking he was. Such a shame, they are majestic animals that shouldn't be stuck in a cage.
Moving on, we came to the Tropic of Capricorn, and the marker, where a sign welcomed us to central Australia. So close to Alice Springs now you can almost smell it! Only another 30km south!
Arrived in Alice Springs! Dropped off at the Haven Hostel Resort where Evs and I found ourselves in a room with 6 other girls. This hostel seems to be the main drop point for all the tours. Everyone was either coming from or going to Uluru and Kings canyon. We listened to a few stories and told a few ourselves. The rooms were large and clean with air conditioning that worked, but a tiny little bathroom with 8 girls all trying to get ready to go out on the town? Not cool. At least it was a decent size and clean. The only public toilet was in the laundry room and it was just one toilet and one shower. I think they need more than this. Very clean hostel with a nice pool area, and even a washing line, where we managed to actually do some washing for the first time since leaving home.
Then we headed out to explore and find a supermarket. We bought grog (Aussie slang for alcohol) and came back and had a shower, I particularly remember drinking vodka cruisers in the shower while we got ready to meet up with everyone for dinner. It was clearly shaping up to be a big night.
Headed to Uncles tavern for dinner, where I had the nicest eggplant parmigiana ever. The eggplant slices were breaded and deep fried and smothered in delicious sauce. The bar manager recognised me as soon as I walked in. Turns out we met each other years ago, he was a flatmate of a guy I used to know years ago in my home town, Wollongong. Small world! Kim had met us out with a few of the other Wayoutback Safari guides who all seem to be based and live in Alice Springs. Party animals much! We drank copious amounts of wine before deciding to head to the famous Rock Bar for more cocktails and laughs. The Rock Bar is part of the Rock Tour company, another company offering tours out to the Red Centre, and the bar and tours are dedicated to alcohol and backpackers looking for a wild time. The pub had big screens with photos from their tours flashing up, which gave us a nice taste of what was to come. Even though I didn't take one of their tours, we spoke to a lot of people who had been on tours with that company, and from what we heard, we knew we had made the right decision to travel with Wayoutback Safaris. We did have a great night at the Rock Bar though, it was more to do with the company we were in rather than the bar itself I believe though.
A few of us decided to kick on at Annie's Place, a hostel with a very popular bar, it was packed. Many shots and bad dancing later, a group of extremely drunk people were walking home through Alice Springs very late at night. I vaguely remember running into an Aboriginal woman and her friend near the hospital who were going to visit another friend, although looking back, it was probably a bit late for visiting hours! There was a nice moment in there, but I can't for the life of me remember.
We made it home without too many incidents and then decided it would be hilarious to go skinny dipping in the pool, even though the pool area was officially closed. We didn't care, so we jumped the fence and dived in. Dripping wet and and freezing cold, I eventually called it a night, after I probably woke everyone up in our room looking for my towel and toiletries so I could have a shower before bed.
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