In our last post, we promised more about the flies. We would encounter our first really characteristic swarms of the annoying little fellows while visiting these ochre pits about a hundred kilometers west of Alice. The deposits are more than half a billion years old. They were tilted upright round about 300 million years ago. For the past several thousands of years they have been the local source for red and yellow ochre essential to Aboriginal medicines, ornament, art and ritual. It's a fascinating site, to say the least.
Ah, now here you can see what we mean about the flies. Mercifully, they're not out for blood. Unmercifully, they are quick and tiny and especially interested in exploring a person's nostrils, ears, and eyes. At one point, Mark could watch flies crawling on his eyelashes while his hands were helplessly occupied with his crutches.
Later that same afternoon, we hiked up the path to the Serpentine Gorge. Certainly the prettiest walk we'd been on in the Outback so far, it was also completely free of other tourists that day--perhaps because it was close to sunset, perhaps because it was a bit of a long walk, perhaps because of those marvelous clouds of little flies. The Gorge itself has a "Lost World" quality to it, as the cold waters of the permanent pool at its entrance have preserved a number of rare floral and faunal species on the far side of the canyon. Even the Aboriginal custodians do not care to enter the gorge and consider it a haunted place where one must perform careful rituals not to arouse the wrath of the Dreaming spirits.
As we left the gorge to hike back to the car, just before sunset, a low angled sun shot through the clouds and lit up the surrounding bluffs.
The next day we left Glen Helen Gorge resort (where we spent a night in which we heard a wonderful local musician perform some of the best interpretations of Celtic, folk, and rock standards, then retired to an even more wonderfully overpriced motel room that closely resembled an old territorial prison cell). We drove the corrugated, dusty gravel road known as the Mereenie Loop from Glen Helen to Kings Canyon. We'd been told this was an incredibly beautiful drive. Perhaps if we'd never seen southern Utah or Namibia we would have been blown away by all the empty expanse of arid savannah lands. In the event, we were more intrigued by the tiny oddities stranded at distant points along that long, long rutted road.
Here then, for your delectation, is a small sampling of random things you will find in the outback, starting with the ubiquitous signs, courtesy of a previous Australian government, warning us not to bring "alcohol or pornography" into the Outback. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
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