Wide open spaces

After a quick goodbye to our new mates in Alice, we headed off early, aiming to get to the Devil’s Marbles before mid afternoon to ensure we got a spot at the campground before it filled up. On the way, we started noticing more and more termite mounds appearing along the side of the road. Up until now, they had been little more than small mounds on the ground, like half a dirt coloured soccer ball, but now they were rising up much higher, and taking on the more typical shape of a termite mound with various towers and columns growing out of the base. The other thing we noticed was that many of them were dressed in old clothes. The further we drove, the more we realised this was clearly the work of the many travellers that had passed by here through the years, with some looking like they had been there for years and others relatively new. Much to her disappointment, Em had recently grown out of her purple tutu (a wardrobe essential for the outback) so we decided the best thing to do was to create a ballerina termite mound. After choosing a suitable mound, we dressed it and gave it a face before proudly standing back to admire our work. For the rest of the drive to the marbles, we enjoyed spotting the many other dressed termite mounds.

Though there was thankfully still plenty of room when we arrive at the marbles campground, it filled up quickly over the next couple of hours. After a bit of food, we headed off to explore the area. It is quite magical when you are actually there. Kat and I had seen plenty of pictures of the marbles, but being there is really different. There are so many rocks, spread over a wide area, and the shapes they have eroded into are amazing. Sphere upon sphere are balanced in a way that makes them look like they were placed there by something, stacked on top of each other, rather than just occurring naturally. We enjoyed a stroll around as the sun was heading to the horizon, and the light created wonderful colours, shadows and silhouettes all around. After dinner, we had an early night as the wind was blowing a gale which made bed the most appealing place to be.