Tennant Creek to Alice Springs

The Devil's Marbles

Heading further south along the Stuart Highway from the gold mining town of Tennant Creek we came to a rock formation known as the Devil's Marbles. These are a series of sandstone formations that are precariously balanced on top of each other. The white man's name for them comes from the fact that the rocks look like they've been thrown at random by some giant devil. On the other hand Aborigines call them XXXXXX and consider the area of great spiritual importance.

Alice Springs - the heart of Australia

The Alice, as locals call it, is the town that sprang up in a gap along the Macdonnel Ranges. It is hundreds of kilometers from everywhere, and lies almost slap bang in the middle of this great continent that is Australia. To the north its a 600km drive to Tennant Creek, whereas south its 700km to Coober Pedy. Besides having the Macdonnel ranges on its doorstep, Alice Springs is also the closest town to Uluru-Katja Tjuta, meaning that many tourists use her as a base to visit the rock.

While in Alice Springs we took the opportunity to go on a cultural Aboriginal experience. Our host was Con, who has been working with the local aborigines since the early 80s and has got to know their ways quite well. His talks were a good primer on Aboriginal marriage customs, beliefs relating to the "Dreamtime", problems relating to education etc. He told us about how most of the aborigines from the greater Alice Springs area still live in a traditional manner - out in the remote bush, sleeping on the land and living off it. Even though the Australian government supplies them with housing they eschew it, or sleep out on the porch under blankets, as that is what they have always known. The company that runs the tour we went on works hand in hand with the Aborigines to help the preservation of the culture.

An interesting segment of our tour was the "bushtucker" part - Con introduced us to various berries and grasses that the aborigines live off, things like bush plums, bush tomatoes, bush bananas, berries, seeds etc. We of course were given a taste of most of these foods, but the highlight of the bushtucker presentation was definitely the Witchety Grub. This critter is the larva stage of the Witchety moth, it spends most of its life living in the root system of the Witchety Bush which gives it its name. One of these grubs has as much protein as three t-bone steaks, and in 30 grubs you'll find as much sustenance as a whole cow! With some trepidation I volunteered to try the grub. After dangling the wriggling monster above my mouth for the Yankee tourists to grab a photo, I let go. The white skin is rather chewy, but the insides are runny, with the consistency of runny eggs, and the taste is very nutty and meaty. To me it was like a cross between eggs, walnuts and steak. In hindsight, the grub couldn't have tasted anything other than good - Aborigines have been eating Witchety grubs for thousands of years; I'm sure that if they tasted bad they wouldn't form part of their diet!

The final delicacy on offer to us was a traditionally cooked Kangaroo tail. The tail is wrapped in herbs and spices and buried with hot coals, where it is left to cook for an hour or so. The American coach party seemed emboldened by my adventure with the Witchety grub and everyone was eager to get a piece of the tail - Con said it was the first time that he had done the tour when everyone had a taste of it!

The final part of our tour was a boomerang session. Unlike their coastal relatives, inland Aborigines have no use for a returning boomerang. Their weapons are longer, heavy sticks that are tossed with the intention to maim the prey. As the hunting party is chasing their prey they will pick up boomerangs that they have thrown earlier to use again. On the other hand returning boomerangs are thrown over the water where they make a loud whistling noise, scaring waterfowl onto the shore, where hunters with spears lie waiting. The reason a boomerang needs to return is saltwater crocodiles - if the boomerang falls into the billabong, that's where it stays, you're not about to risk your life for a piece of wood! After a demonstration we were given the chance to throw a boomerang at a foam kangaroo called Skippy. Lucky for us we don't depend on our boomerang skills for food - Skippy survived another tour!

The West MacDonnel Ranges

The MacDonnel ranges spread east and west from Alice Springs, though in a 2WD vehicle like we've got its only the West MacDonnels that are accessible. The entire range is a comfortable day's drive out of Alice. There's plenty to see in the West MacDonnels, but they are truly appreciated on foot - the Larapinta trail is a 230km trek along the West MacDonnels. Our lightning visit to the outback didn't allow any time for long treks, but we did stop at the major attractions of the West MacDonnels.

The mountain ranges look amazing at both ends of the day in the golden light of sunrise and sunset. As we were driving along we could see one of the Aboriginal creation myths in the flesh - for the local tribes the West MacDonnels were created by an ancestor being in the form of a Witchety grub, and you can see the outline of a caterpillar along the ridges of the mountain range.

Driving through the MacDonnel ranges didn't do much good to my roadkill tally - flocks of budgerigars just love the tarmac, and I must own up to leaving a couple of clouds of green and blue feathers in my wake. The tally stands at 3 budgies, 2 Zebra Finches, and a few hundred thousand insects!

After another night in the MacDonnel Ranges we made an early start, stopping in Alice to brim the tank and buy some supplies for our trip to Uluru Katja Tjuta, the spiritual heart of Aboriginal Australia.

Plenty of photos from Alice Springs are now on my Picasa web album