Monday, October 12, 2015

The Devils Marbles

With 310 km to the next town with a store, Ti Tree, and 120 km to the next road house where we could get water with some degree of certainty, my trailer was heavier than ever before. 30 kg of food and water on top of 10 kg of gear made my front wheels lift from the ground by the heavy load at the rear.

But I didn't think much about it, because I was looking forward to the Devils Marbles. Long before I planned this trip, when I thought I would some day do it on a bicycle, rock formations like these had been representing a lot about the outback. Maybe more than the termite mounds and Uluru. They're exotic, far away from everything and sacred to the Aboriginals. Reading about them before this trip made me fear that they were a tourist trap and "just rocks", but I was nevertheless anxious about getting to experience them.

And I did not get disappointed. The very few other tourists at the site didn't wander far from their convenient camper wagons leaving the entire area for us to explore on our own.

We had set the alarm early to see the sunrise so we pressed the snooze button on Sofias phone at 5:30. Right after, the same melody was heard at a distance. Someone else with the same wake up song is going for the sun as well, I thought, but come on, shut it off already! Then I realized it was a bird repeating the sound it had just heard. It sounded lovely and I laid silent listening until other noises interrupted it.

On our way towards our next rest day we stopped to refill our water and had a lovely breakfast at Wauchope Hotel. The breakfast turned into lunch and the lunch turned into a couple of beers. The last 20 km to Wycliffe Well was a breeze. I think.



310 to Ti Tree makes a heavy load, tilting my board up.



Charging station.



There is something going on here but I can't figure out what.



Some of the Devils Marbles, or Karlu Karlu.



Sofia is trying, without success, to roll the boulder over. Some P90X exercise might help.



A marble with the Milky Way as backdrop.



A romantic sunrise.

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