The Pebbles

The Pebbles are an Aboriginal Sacred Site just north of Tennant Creek, mainly used for women's ceremonies.  It is an area scattered with granite rocks & boulders.  A proposal to mine the granite - which is red hued and very coarse grained - for floor & kitchen tiles met with strong protests, resulting in its preservation as a reserve.  The Aboriginal Community manages the area and facilities are provided.

During the night spent here dingoes were heard howling nearby - very near in fact.  The night was cool and I was welled tucked up in my sleeping bag.  The early alarm was a shock, not nearly so much as finding out I'd run out of gas so no morning coffee!  Today I'll mosey on down to the Devils Marbles, with stops at the Telegraph Station & Lake Mary Kathleen (I think is the proper name); oh, and for some gas of course.

Rollin', rollin', rollin'..

My stay in Brisbane is over - great to spend time with distant family, lovely to see them move into their new home with their new son - a few stressful bits but all fine now.  I bought a few items while here (retail therapy may be fine with a house & garage to store impulse purchases, but a campervan?) so packing was a challenge, with some items remaining behind.  One 'plus' was an Easter present of a great printer, an HP portable which is a third the size of the one I brought up and runs off a battery. 

I sorted my pot cupboard and placed pieces of the foam matting used as non-slip on boats etc. - Magic!  they now hardly rattle at all.  Plastic storage crates are great, they travel on the floor and sit up on boards when the top is raised. 

Friday, 20th April, I left Brisbane for Tennant Creek.  Hwy 66 runs from the W Queensland border joining the Stuart Hwy just north of Tennant Creek:  Not as well know as that other Route 66 BUT I was passed by a red '88 Corvette! It was pretty warm until I got to the Northern Territory, where it was cool and raining.  Fortunately it fined up today, Anzac Day, for the Services:  Didn't quite make it to the Dawn Service, and nearly missed the later Service which was at 0930 rather than 1100!  There was a very good attendance and obviously Tennant Creek is a very sociable town as there were many wreaths laid by many different groups & organisations - an excellent Service!  Also good to be able to get out and walk around after a couple of days of rain following long drives.  From here it is north 10km to the Pebbles as I didn't stop off to see them along the way, then turn south, put her into 'mosey' and mosey on down along the Stuart Hwy, taking weeks rather than days to get to Alice Springs.  Perhaps not a lot to say after travelling 2,500km, but that distance only gets me to the start of the places I want to see (and that doesn't include the 1,770km up from Tassie).  But it should get interesting from here!

Going back a little, the second day I travelled to Winton and spent that night camped beside the Long Waterhole, the place the alleged Jolly Swagman incident took place.  I didn't here any ghosts but I just love the romance of the spot:  In the morning spoonbills waded the shore 10m from my van!