 |
| The Devil playing with her marbles!! |
DAY 21 – WYCLIFFE WELL – DALY WATERS Saturday, 23rd July
Man! My hubby is a taskmaster! I thought holidays meant sleep-ins. Clearly I am on the wrong holiday! Up at 6am this morning to pack up so that we could get to the Devil’s Marbles (about 100kms south of Tennant Creek) for sunrise. Absolutely spectacular. The kids loved running through the rocks and discovering different angles for Mummy’s photos. I had no idea they were so extensive. I thought it was just a few rocks clumped together but it is spread over a number of acres. So we had a great discussion led by our “frustrated-geologist-Daddy” about sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks, because all the boulders are granite. Am sure some of this will infiltrate the kids’ brains and magically come out in Year 9!
We were very glad that we did not stay at Tennant Creek for the night. Although we did go and visit the Christ the King Catholic Church which was moved here from Pine Creek in 1936. It was brought on three trucks, unfortunately during the wet season. The first made it through, the second upturned in a creek near Daly Waters and the third waited in Pine Creek for the dry season to commence. It was known as the “longest church in Australia” because its front door was in Tennant Creek, its back door in Pine Creek and its side wall scattered over Daly Waters!! We prayed for all of you there. Except for the Gordons. Another unsuccessful geocache.
Of course we dawdled a little too long in Tennant Creek so did not make it to Daly Waters in time to get a powered site. This little city chick was not happy. Hubby did manage to sneak a hose to some vacant tap somewhere but no electricity which meant no microwave, no kettle, no toaster, and no lights!! But we did go and listen to some music in the pub for a while, while the kids did their journals (plied with promises of a softdrink). The Daly Waters pub is a sight to behold, with ladies underwear displayed all around, notes of all currencies stapled around the bar and a sign saying that it was the shortest lived and most remote McDonald’s outlet in Australia – lasted only for a day. (I think it was for some charity event). After putting the kids to bed we went back to listen to “Chilli” the comedian who was very funny. And also very moving. He sang and explained about Paul Kelly’s song “From Little Things, Big Things Grow” about Vincent Lingari and the Vestey’s. It somehow meant a whole lot more when you are sitting out there in the middle of very large Northern Territory cattle stations and on Aboriginal land. He also sung “I am Australian” which he said “was a song about every single one of us”. It was beautiful.
No comments:
Post a Comment