Nele & Andrew Around Oz: Devil’s Marbles Campsite, Devil’s Marbles Conservation Reserve, NT

Day 180 – 15^th August 2011

Devil’s Marbles Campsite, Devil’s Marbles Conservation Reserve, NT

We first treated ourselves with a yummy vegetable juice (the perks of being in a bigger town) and after the usual grocery shopping and filling up with fuel we left Alice Springs. We had lunch at Aileron where Nele went for a walk up the hill for a closer look at the statue of the Anmatjere man to find out more about the story (day 157) but didn’t get much the wiser. Back down a visit to the nearby Aboriginal Outback Art Gallery revealed the statue (12m high – tip of spear 17m high – approx. 8 tonnes – the project to complete the “Hollywood” style Aileron sign and the statue took 18 months) was built to honour the local Anmatjere people. Some progress was being made to the statue of his family with the artist working on the addition of a lizard. We continued on with a short stop at the Red Centre Farm near Ti Tree to buy some of their delicious mango ice cream and at the Central Mt Stuart Historical Reserve where a cairn commemorates John McDouall Stuart’s naming of Central Mt Stuart which he thought was the centre of Australia (although he was a fair way off – the true centre lies at the Lambert Centre near Finke – SE of Alice). We camped the night at the Devil’s Marbles campsite which was very crowded (popular place). We went for a short walk to have a closer look at these huge boulders and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.