18th August - Mt Isa to The Pebbles (Kunjarra)

We managed to get away reasonably early today, we are amazed how many k's we can do now we are on the bitumen, not like the Cape trip.  All we see on the roads are road trains, (yep even the army do road trains) caravans and 5 wheelers, oh yeah and we saw quite a few dead cows along the road side.   Thank god we didn't have any encounters with cows.   Today we crossed the QLD/NT boarder.    I saw a sign "Photo Opportunity" ahead, before I knew it we had passed it, I said "Darl that was the border"! but there was no going back, a photo opportunity missed.

 

Our first stop in the NT was the Barkly Homestead along the Barkly highway.  No sticker here to add to our collection, it is the first and last stop (first over the border and last before the border).   Had picnic lunch here and watched the road trains, caravans, 5 wheelers come and go.  We drove on and decided to stop over at The Pebbles another free camp, we are getting into the free camp thing.  Had to go over 6kms of dirt but it was easy dirt to get there.  The Pebbles (Kunjarra) is a place of Munga Munga dreaming, i.e. womens dreaming site for ceremonies and dance.  NO MEN ALLOWED.

When we arrived there was one other camper, a lady travelling on her own, Lenore and her pup Molly.  We thought this was a great spot off the road, until Darl went to hammer the pegs in, the ground was like concrete, so we improvised with some small pebbles......   We had not long arrived and getting set up, when in rocked Magnus and his missus in their big 4WD and flash van.   He basically just pulled up got outa the car and bailed up Darl for a yak and a drink which is all good. They cranked up AC/DC on the car stereo, for a couple hours didn't seem quite right in this sacred aboriginal site.....

I had to wonder about Magnus, as he wanted to have a camp fire which all good but under the shelter?  Not so good.  Out with the chainsaw to cut up some logs, we talked him into having the fire in the designated fire place.  This is awesome country, we are starting at the pebbles and working our way up to the big one!  Ayers Rock, via Devils Marbles.  The sky is just so big out here, the night sky is just a mass of stars, we can visibly see the milky way, southern cross, saucepan etc.

One thing about this spot, it is blowing an absolute gale and during the night the trailer actually gets a bit of a shake up, not that my Darl would notice as he is happily snoring his head off.

This is a view of the camp site from the top of the pebbles, mind you they are big pebbles.   Magnus had left and this is our camp and Lenore's.   She has a brand new Ford Ranger and an old sturdy van, decked out and painted butterflies on outside.