Devil's Marbles

Well I have some rather tragic news. My faux summer has come to an end. It gone down to one degree last night and could only manage a top of 18 today so the polo shirts and shorts are back in the bag. In other sad news Lake Eyre is down to about 10% capacity so not really worth the effort to fly over it I'm sorry to say. It seems that nature is telling me its time to end this sojourn and get back to work. So it's off to Alice Springs today via some more interesting looking rocks. Followed by Ayers Rock and Kings Canyon, Coober Pedy, Broken Hill, Dubbo, another quick stop in Sydney and then home. I'm thinking I will pull into the driveway on about the 15th or 16th. But lets not get ahead of ourselves.

It will come as no shock to you that I left Tennant Creek with no encouragement required. It is a dreary little dump that will take an enormous effort of goodwill and an injection of serious community values for it ever to become a respectable town. However just over 100 kilometres out of town is a famous rock formation known as the Devil's Marbles. What a great name for a natural wonder. Martha (who has got herself a boyfriend I might add) did not disappoint as she fired up the old Charlie Daniels Band classic "Devil Came Down to Georgia" on the mp3 player.

I spent a diverting half an hour playing with my marbles and then loosing them before pushing on to Alice, another 400 k's up the road. I stopped at some roadhouse along the way and picked up another hitch hiker. Terry the English builder kept me company for the last 200 k's into Alice and regaled me with tales of working on the communities out here. He also gave me some valuable tips about Alice, basically don't walk the main drag of a night time. He suggested I go to the casino for my one night (I did check it out but it looked so much like a big NSW club I just had to leave). 

I ended up dining at a local institution called "Overlanders" where I had an exceptional steak and too much red wine. I stayed at the Crowne Plaza which was a little out of town. Terry assured me it was a good choice as my car would be safe in the car park there and that the Casino was next door. It had a resident peacock who enjoyed checking himself in the reflection of the all the glass that rimmed the hotel. (I always thought they were native to India?). Anyway for an homogenised, sanitised, chain hotel it was pretty good.

What no one could have prepared me for was Territory Day. They celebrate it on July 1st every year. It's the day that they commemorate their independence (having occurred in 1978). Judging by their normal behaviour they celebrate their independence every day (but that's just a personal opinion). What is unique about it is that you can buy then let off fireworks on that day. Without stating the obvious it's not an opportunity lost on the average Territorian. Leaving the hotel to go out for dinner last night I heard explosive sounds more suited to central Baghdad than central Australia. 

So that's how I fell asleep, to the sonorous sounds of exploding shells. The fireworks were called such interesting things as "Shockwave", "Area 51" and most invitingly of all "Time to Die". I kept the sales brochure from the paper and there was even one rated as military grade that sold for the more than reasonable $330.00. Its off to Ayers Rock tomorrow and I'm expecting that to be pretty special.