Seashalia: Tennant Creek to Alice Srings

Two long days of driving (about 500 km per day) brought us to Alice Springs. Naturally we have beautiful blue skies, but with all the burning off happening in Alice Springs, and along the route, the sky was sometimes blanked out with smoke and the sun took on a mysterious, glaring metallic form. Along the route we saw about 50 or more Army vehicles and all the drivers waved as they hurried past.

Yesterday, after over-nighting at Tennant Creek (where we took the photo of the Aboriginal Art centre), we came to the Devils Marbles.

There is a National Park dedicated to all these amazing standing stones, balancing on other stones. It was right on the track as we drove along. Two prayers were answered as we prayed for the wind to stop so we could drive more easily, and it did – straight away and also the usual problem of finding somewhere to stop, as all the parks were full. (Who can blame all the southerners coming up here to escape winter at home). Well, the Lord found us a pleasant place to stop in Alice close to the gap between two huge rocky cliff faces. The van park provided $10 dinners and free drinks and it is quite cheap.

After a gentle beginning to the day, we headed out for the Desert Park. I took a ride on a scooter as the park looked pretty big and the day was hot, but Graeme did all the walking. It is a most interesting park, but all too familiar to us, who spent seven years living in, and exploring the deserts around Broken Hill. We met many familiar animals and plants, including flowers of the desert. It was lovely to see the Sturt’s Desert Pea, some with black centres and some with red centres.

It reminded us of all the ones that used to grow in our front garden of our first home in Broken Hill, such a long time ago. We could grow nearly anything out there in that wonderful soil. Graeme spotted the lizard in the garden at the park amongst the lovely desert flowers and both he and I had a ball photographing some of the birds there, some with amazing songs, like rattling a wire fence or crackling paper, or tramping through the underbrush, and sing as well. Clever bird - he posed for my photos for a long time. We could have sent lots more. I took the eagle along the road as we travelled.