The Devils Marbles

Its 21:46.  There are a lot of empty cans of Toohey’s New about.  We have 6 days off now.  We just had a great  BBQ with Angela, the Irish Vet Locum we are living with.  It’s only 26 degrees, that’s cool.

I have one last post before i am up to date with our pics and travels and we can start getting into the Alice pics.

The Devils Marbles are located about 100kms south of Tennant creek just off the Stuart Highway.  The park or conservation area is a huge collection of massive granite boulders stacked in interesting configurations.

We left Tennant creek on our last days drive to Alice and stopped in at the Devil’s Marbles early on Saturday morning.  We got there around 7-8am so it was relatively cool (30 degrees) and we had some good light on the rocks and surrounds.

The park is definitely worth checking out and there is a camp ground there that we may stay at on the way home, rather than the awful Tennant creek.  The Davenport Ranges national park is nearby too which is rated as one of the best camping sites in the NT.

Panorama of the area.  Click on it for a larger pic.  The green, red and blue blend brilliantly.

The visitors centre. 

There are huge granite boulders like this stacked on top of each other all over the park

I told Corinne not to stand on this boulder, look what she did.  No respect these days from the young ones.

Ghost Gums.  They are really common around the NT.  They are beautiful trees, we want to get some back in QLD.

Silhouettes

Lots of different species of grasses can be found here all with different texture and colours

Heading south to our final destination

Aileron, famous for its massive Aboriginal statues, and very little else, but expensive fuel.

Massive Statues, massive.

The Devils Marbles

Nearly there–Stuart Highway to Alice

So, I am still at work.  Its 40 degrees outside, about 22 in here.  I am listening to ‘Flame Trees’ by Sarah Blasko and sitting on a couch.  That’s not bad for a job really. 

I still have a few more pics of the long drive down to Alice.  We stopped in afew spots and came across lots of Zebra Finches.  These little guys are really common aviary/cage birds but you don’t see them very commonly in the wild. 

Next and last drive to Alice post is the Devils Marbles – absolutely magnificent.

Another great vista, car, blue sky and green grass.

A pair of Zebra finches.  Male is on the left with his bright orange cheek patch and below you can see his zebra stripes on his chest.

Bird

Nice big spider, this one was about the size of your hand.  I think its a golden orb weaver.  The big ones the girl.  This picture is for all you British girls coming over this year, lookin forward to it.

Click on this pic for a larger view.  This is a panorama from the lookout near Tennant Creek.

Nearly there–Stuart Highway to Alice

Driving to Alice - again

I have discussed the drive to Alice in a previous post.  I still have though quite a few more pics from the 3000km drive.  probably this post and then one more as we have the Devils Marbles to fit in. 

These pics cover driving around Mt Isa and the Barkley Tablelands. 

Mt Isa is quite a large place compared to the other towns you drive through on the way to Alice.  It is quite a site as you enter town and can see the large smoke stacks and lots of heavy plant and equipment relating to the mining industry.

The Barkley tablelands cover a huge area and are flat and well grassed.  They run from western QLD well into the NT.  This stretch of road was sometimes a bit boring but still interesting in its vast nothingness that you don’t see in many places in the world anymore.

Driving into The Isa.  Smoke stacks in the distance.

A good view of one of the stacks, right in the centre of town on the main road.  You can go left back down to Boulia or right to Camooweal where we were going.

This bad photo through a dirty, sunny windscreen was to show ‘Mansworld’.  This is the shop in Mt Isa where you go if you are a MAN.  I dropped in and bought myself all new outfits so i would fit in.

This is a long straight road, with red dirt and some trees in the distance.

2 Brolgas flying away.  I had just spotted a pair of these massive cranes on the side of the road when we saw these 2 standing in the middle of the highway.  We slowed down and i tried to get a pic of them but only managed them flying away through the side window. 

Entering the Territory.  They don’t give you much warning, a microsleep and you miss it.

A rarely seen speed limit in Australia.  It’s quite helpful as the roads are generally quite good and there are long distances of nothing to cover.

There are kangaroos about apparently.  At least you can see them coming from about 20 kms here.

Flat and grassy

A tree, very exciting on this stretch.

There were lots of swallows and black kites flying around the road on this stretch.  Every now and then a young or genetically disadvantaged one would try to out run our car.  We found this one wedged in the radiator at a toilet stop.

Driving to Alice - again

Barellan Point Wildlife

While we were staying at Corinne’s parent’s house at Barellan point in Brisbane we managed to capture some pictures of the local wildlife. 

We saw the toads earlier in the blog which we caught at night.  Here are some of the prettier inhabitants.

Female Brush tailed possum.  I know its a female because we could see the young one in its pouch.  This possum spends the day sleeping in the shed and then comes out at night gets a bit of fruit and jumps about on the tin roof.  There are quite a few possums around the area.

Climbing back up to go to bed for the day.  Ten minutes later this possum was passed out on its back with its front leg hanging over the metalwork.

Scaly breasted lorikeet.  These guys are nectar and blossom eaters and are very common all along the East coast of Australia.

Rainbow lorikeet peeping out from behind a branch.

Green Tree Frog, sitting on the pool fence, croaking – a lot.

Possum coming out at night in the palms, waiting for a bit of fruit.

Barellan Point Wildlife

Artie

So, Onwards with more blogging.  I am still at work, its still Saturday and 9pm is a long way off.  Its good to be able to catch up with editing photos and blogging.  I already have lots of pictures and stories about Alice so i can get these older pics out of the way and move onto Alice.
Artie or Arthur is our Nephew.  He is Denise and Adam’s first child.  Denise is Corinne’s sister.  When we came back form the the UK a few weeks ago it was only the second time we had seen little Artie.  He is much bigger though as last time when we saw him he was really small and non moving.
Artie is now 17-18 months old (I got that off Denise’s blog) and is really getting about and having some fun.  He is a cute little blond haired kid and seems to be quite happy most of the time.  He is obsessed with possums, the shed and Grumps (gramps). 
We spent some time with him around the pool which he really loves and is quite fearless in.  I promised Denise that I would get some of these pics onto the blog so here they are.

No fear of the head going under the water or walking off the edge into the pool.

The Cheesy Artie smile

Artie

Bob–The super cat

I am at work at the moment.  I have been here since 12pm.  It is Saturday and it is quite quiet.  I have another 3 hours and 40 minutes before i can go home and then i am on call all night. 

So i have decided to have a big afternoon of blogging, assuming nothing changes. 

Bob is our cat and we acquired him about 5 years ago as a young stray.  He was a very, very friendly little kitten and loved to share his love with both of us.  We had him for a year before we moved to the UK. 

Corinne’s parents have been looking after him ever since.  So he is now about 5 years old and will soon be moving out to the farm with us in July.  We asked the parents if they wanted to keep him, but they said they want to be free and easy, just in case they want to take off on a holiday, trip or whatever.

So, Bob is the biggest cat either of us have really ever seen and as vets we see a lot of cats.  He is about 7-7.5kgs and not overweight.  I have seen much heavier cats but they have been mostly fat and not cat. 

Bob or Bossy as he is sometimes called is very well behaved (mostly) and comes when called.  He loves a pat and also likes to lie on your chest and stare at you and schmoose you from about 1 cm away.  Lately he has taken to waking up Corinne’s parents every morning at 4:30am.  He is obviously in charge and so his servants oblige him. 

I have some pictures of him when we were in Barellan point a few weeks ago.  The weather was hot and humid and Bob spent a lot of time trying to cool himself on the cooler tiles.

Bob–The super cat