The Devil's Marbles is for most travellers, an overnight stopover on the way to a destination they seem in a hurry to get to.

For Reg and myself, this majestic, inspiring, beautiful and seemingly different every time we visit, easy to access location off of the Stuart Highway, Northern Territory, is a destination in itself, one to plan for and linger at, walk around, relax around the camp fire at and spend at least a few days or more at each year.   Camp site fees are reasonable, facilities include, picnic tables, BBQ's, (BYO fire wood), and very basic bush toilets, a ranger campfire talk and walk once a week, dogs are allowed within the camp area but not outside in the reserve and be attentive to small dogs as this is dingo country.

I seriously recommend, if your travelling North through the centre of Australia, this is a place to stay at, not just a fast stop over.  Just arrive EARLY in the day so you can set up in a good site as while it can be near deserted for a few hours in the middle of the day it can become packed out overnight and impossible to get a level bit of ground let alone a camp fire.
  Just plan ahead and soak in and enjoy this incredible location and melting pot for all, you will be camped beside back packers through to RV's worth a kings ransom but the wealth is in being able to stay a while after the masses leave and experience the magic of this place.

I'll let my photo's do the talking now.

Take a refreshing dip in Katherine Hot Springs. These natural thermal springs are situated on the banks of the Katherine River, within the Katherine township, and comprise of a series of clear pools framed by native vegetation. Relax and enjoy swimming in the pools, which are complemented by picnic grounds and scenic walking and bike riding tracks. 

There is a steep circular walk up the hillside from the springs, one track takes you past the gap in the earth where the spring emerges forming it's flowing stream downward to the landscaped area set aside for swimming, this is a pretty and interesting walk, the other track, takes you alongside the Katherine River, where I've seen locals  catch a barramundi with nothing more than a hook on a bit of sting on a stick. The view of the river from the top is just beautiful. 

I stay at the River view caravan park, mainly because of it's proximity at the top of this walk, to the hot springs and because they have dog friendly sites.

I've swum with these same six children now, in the Katherine hot springs, for three days, they are starting to get to know me, one even jumped on me for a piggy back, and yes their lack of sophistication might be refreshing to me and I can understand it was a bit off putting to some, though I suspect racism was at play more than not wanting to swim near children when  many seniors who came to the pool in bathers, took one look at these children playing in the water, looked disappointed even annoyed and walked away.  There is room for a hundred people in these springs so I felt this unreasonable and was glad the child like innocence of these children did not make them aware of the snub.  There is plenty of room for all in the Katherine Springs, 6 children in one area still leaves 90% of the springs area child free.

Myself I thought they were nice kids :-). I've enjoyed their company and well I was amused, not offended when one young girl, said to me 'Hello'. "Hello", I replied back to her with a beaming smile, :-), LOL, to which I received the obviously not intended rudely, more a genuine enquiry,’You have buck teeth, why don't you get them straitened'.    Well LOL, :-), I grinned again, and noted how perfectly straight and gleaming white the six of these children's teeth were and wondered how much of that perfection was corrective dentistry as I could just imagine them overhearing a dentist in a clinic telling one of their family, ‘you have buck teeth, we will fix that’, children do mimic adults and I doubt that the dentist in the clinic consider that comment rude, so I certainly did not find this young girl’s enquiry, rude, though I could imagine my own grandchildren being taken to task for such a comment and probably rightly so as it would be so out of place a thing to say, in sophisticated suburban Melbourne.

Anyhow in the relaxed, unsophisticated setting of the pool and realizing these children had grown up free of some of the inhibitions suburbia places on children these days,  I was more amused.

I pondered on how most of our children in sophisticated parts of the country have so much of their childhood playfulness and open honesty, taken away from them before they have outgrown childhood.  Yes I know we are all eager to teach them how to conform and have manners and fit in well, I would have urged my own young children to think carefully of others feelings before speaking out so ...well...truthfully, J, my teeth are a little bucked.  J, Great powers of observation that girl will ‘go far’.  I did enjoy watching these children be so unrestrained and happy open and honest and well...child like.

I also wondered how much was natural, the perfection of teeth fitting in the mouth that comes more easily when blood lines are not excessively mixed, as with me with my big North of England teeth from  my father's side not quite fitting in my short stocky Scottish from my mum's side, face.  Mum’s parents were dentists and she said that mixed races were an corrective dentist’s financial dream.  The slight staining of being in my 60's and a few gaps to the back of my mouth when i smile and  I was aware that beside their broad grinning full teeth display of perfection, my teeth must look very in need of their dental clinic make over.   I thought it best not to explain that of the two sets of dentures I have with me, these 'buck teeth' as she called them were my straightest and best set.

I find such lack of 'put on' formality, frankly refreshing, I prefer to see active children than children sitting over computer games and surely diving into the springs has to beat pretend sports on Wii whatever it’s called, for children.  Tomorrow before i go to the springs I will make sure I give me pearlies’ a very thorough clean. J, Never too old to be reminded to take a little more care, things like teeth do get noticed.

Yesterday in these same  hot sprigs I overheard  a school teacher telling people that these same children, her students, live 35 to a three bedroom house because the family has such a sense of 'community', they desire to live this closely together and t isn't because the parents do not care for the children, it's a lifestyle choice they have made.   It was as refreshing as the swim to hear her talk and express understanding and even admiration for another’s culturally different lifestyle.

The MacDonnell Ranges has been a Mecca to the artist inside me for all my adult life.  Magnificent, red and blue violets, Pilbara red, red and green gold and soft grey green and indigo, sigh, J, and I am floating on a high thinking in colours. The picture above is of  my painting of the twin ghost gums in the Western MacDonnell ranges.

The Eastern MacDonnell Ranges is a landscape of grandeur, rocky gorges and Aboriginal history and rock art.  There are wonderful bush camp grounds, gem fossicking locations and old ghost towns to explore

The Western MacDonnell Rangers are more frequented by visitors, prettier, more gorges to visit and some incredible sights to see, so close to Alice Springs.  I have obtained better photos in other years, as it was overcast for most of our visit this time, even Mt Sonda, had her beautiful head in a cloud so i’ll illustrate with some of my art work I painted there in the last visit as well as my photos from my visit this year.

As usual we found a mountain top to set up home base on and watched the sun rise and set , walked along the ridges and up and down hills J in areas where the dog was allowed, then into a warm bed  with woollen doona,  when that  camp fire is put out and you are reminded that winter has started and as much as the days in the centre, lovely and mild, the nights are cold.   On winter nights like this, I love our revolutionary designed eco-tourer caravan while it folds down for towing, it has hard insulated walls, not canvas sides like the pop tops, the best of the solid wall construction vans with the economy and ease of towing of the pop tops and faster and easier to put up that our previous much loved AVan  ALiner, one of those cute triangular vans.    While I don’t believe there is ever the perfect caravan or RV to suit everyone, there s always some degree of compromise needed when choosing a van.

 Reg and I both have a love for  great design, and  fantastic use of every little bit of space within a van and our Eco tourer van is the off highway model, with its own en suit and it’s fully self sufficient with solar power we even watch TV or a DVD at night and use our lights for hours just from the battery charged by the sun even n overcast days we generate enough power to live in the bush or on top of our favourite, MacDonnell Ranges mountain, with all the mod cons we could need.   While alone in a remote location in these beautiful ranges  with no need to respect our neighbour and be quiet, we watched old musical comedy DVD’s  and our remote area of the ranges rang with the music of  ‘South Pacific’ and ‘Oliver’, once it became too cold to stay outside.

Now we are back closer to neighbouring campers and vanners, we become readers, writers, card players and tranquil star gazers again and marvel that everyone else around us is being as quiet and respectful of tier neighbours peace and quiet, also.

 

Ah it’s a great lifestyle this gray with an a for active, nomad, life J

 

Blatherskite Park, is just off the Stuart Highway on the South side of Alice Springs, just prior to the Heavytree Gap where the main Stuart Highway narrows to single lanes, as it, the famous Ghan train line and the  mostly dry, Fink River bed, passes through the small natural Gap between the Western and Eastern Mac Donnell Ranges. 

The town of Alice Springs is on the Northern side of Honeymoon Gap.

Blatherskite Park is the venue for many of Central Australia’s large, outdoor events, the Alice Springs Show, on the first Friday and Saturday in July, and the Imparja Camel Cup, held one week later.

Many extra large touring vehicles, the large motor homes with trailers, travellers unable to fit into the average caravan park, may apply in advance for permission to stay at the park. 

Reg and I often stay here,  as I find I can prepare my exhibition in peace and quiet, loving the serenity of the large expanse of green grass, beautiful trees, including some majestic old ghost gums and of course, those wonderful ranges views.

This time of year, May though till August the climate is wonderful, warm sunny days, 20 – 25 degrees. Dappled shade from trees in the middle of the day, then its snug n warm at night in the van, under the woollen doona.

Pack the woollens and oil skin coat for the evenings if you, must go out, and for the early mornings as it can become extremely cold overnight.   At this time the morning temperatures are only dropping to between 6 and 10 degrees but prior to the Alice Springs show there is usually a severe burn of the grass, turning it yellow white, as the temperature drops below freezing, and you rise to a frozen grasses and condensation dripping from the ceilings. Be sure to bring the heater or if you are self sufficient on an unpowered site, consider a diesel heater for the van if you’re spending time in the centre in winter.

I have packed the wheat bags to heat in the microwave to keep out bed lovely and warm if we are here during mid winter.  

At the end of June, Alice Springs holds the Beanie Festival, over 5,000 beanies and their makers from all over the world; participate in exhibitions, workshop and demonstrations.  The beanie, is ideal head gear for Central Australian winter evenings and mornings and a great place to buy one is at the Todd Mall Market, held every second Sunday

 

 5 kilometers away from the thermal pool and a shorter walk through the bush to the far nicer 'Bitter Springs'.

Through the years we have camped and walked long distances along this river and stayed just about anywhere you are allowed to stay, both in and with the dog, on the edge of the National Park. I've spent weeks here in past years painting the falls and the tropical river, it's so beautiful here. Katherine is only 100 klm up the road, there are similar lovely areas there and fantastic shops, best value shopping between Adelaide and Darwin, or heading the way I'm going, I'll not see these prices until I reach Canarvon. I stock up here while things are cheap. Going to make an effort to release weight this week while I can buy fresh fruit and veggies that are half way affordable and I can indulge in big serves of filling low carb and healthy vegetables . I also plan in this week with very little driving involved to be very active, walking and swimming every chance I get. This is a week when I can make the effort count . Off for my swim in the Katherine Hot Springs, right now , it's just a pleasant walk along the banks of the Katherine River then down the hill to the natural hot springs, running stream. at the lower half of the stream there is a small waterfall and a natural spa pool at the base of it.