Devils Marbles.

I found a couple of travel partners to join me on the trip from Townsville, Queensland out to Alice Springs, Northern Territory.  We left the sugar cane fields of the wet tropics for the desert of the Red Centre – quite the dramatic change.

We were no particular rush to get here, so we took some time out to visit the one spot on my list: Devils Marbles or Karlu Karlu.  The “marbles” are giant round boulders, some of which appear to be balancing delicately.  These boulders are granite, surrounded by sandstone.  Blocks of granite were exposed to the surface of the Earth after erosion of the sandstone.  Water exposure started the decay of the granite, and further weathering has rounded them.  Most of the granite remains underneath, so it appears that these boulders are on platforms.  Not all are spherical in shape; some are more flat like these “cheeserings.”

Ideally, you will visit Karlu Karlu during sunset or sunrise (or both – camp there like we did!) to catch the light on the rocks.  Beautiful coloring.

The four local Aboriginal tribes place great cultural and spiritual significance on these rocks.  The location is a sacred meeting place.  It is also associated with several Dreamtime stories, but most of those stories are kept secret.  During the middle of the night, I woke up during a brief period of strong warm winds – could that have been the spirits?  Because of the sacredness, the Aboriginal people request that you do not climb on the boulders.  I am not sure that you would want to do much bouldering on them.  Due to the weathering, the outer portion can break or peel off like the layers of an onion.  Some boulders can even split right in half.

Although some appear to be balanced so carefully, they are not going to budge easily.  When we took this photo, I left my camera bag behind on the trail.  Afterwards, the camera was brought up for a few more shots.  Down below, we saw a dingo running along the path toward the campsite.  My first dingo – yay!  My excitement was short-lived though, because the dingo was heading along the path that had my camera bag.  Earlier in the day, a ranger warned us to be careful with our items around the campsite, because dingos like to swipe them, especially shoes and socks.  Remembering his warning, I quickly jumped off the rocks and ran towards my bag.  I don’t know if the dingo would have grabbed it, but I came close enough to deter it away in time.  That bag contained my passport, wallet, and car keys.  I knew I would never hear the end of it if that dingo had grabbed my bag!