Vikings in Australia - Víkingar í Ástralíu

7^th of October

We woke up around 5am by accident! Chris had set is iPhone to ring at 6am. After midnight the iPhone changed the clock one hour earlier in accordance with the daylight savings changes in NSW. These changes are not done in NT, so when his phone thought it was 6am it was actually 5am in NT. Australia does have 5 different time zones and each state has different ways in observing daylight savings. So everyone gets caught in this, especially when travelling between states!

We had noticed some wild horses on the way in the previous day. As the sun came up I could see three of them trotting through town! Perhaps they went for the waterhole to drink! At least they trotted along the bitumen and seemed to observe the traffic signs!

Wallace Rockhole.

We used the early hour well and were all ready and packed by 8am. This is when the tour to the Wallace Rockhole was to commence. At 8am the Toyota pulled up and we boarded it. There was also a tour group that came in their vehicle. The tour guides are two young Aboriginal girls, so they drove the Toyota through the village towards the mountain range behind it. There we passed the fresh water pumping station, which supplies the village with water. Just around it we parked the car and then joined the other tourists. The guides then led us into the hills along the creek bed. The first stop was to talk about some of the plants and how they were used by the Aboriginals. Next they showed us the grinding stones they used to grind the Ocher Clay into dust and then mix with animal fat. They also pointed out some of the petroglyphs and hand paintings. They gave us some background on these. The hand paintings simply mean, “I was here” and they are normally never overwritten. If the hand imprint had additional symbols around it, it would mean this is a sacred site and you are not to enter. The petroglyphs also provided information i.e. circles indicate a waterhole and animal footprints simply indicate the type of animals that come to the waterhole to drink or can be caught nearby. Other symbols are ceremonial and secret men’s business. They then showed us a replica of the key artifacts the Aboriginal used. It was quite informative and interesting to see, plus we could ask a lot of questions.

Owen Springs.

Our next camping site was Stuart Wells Roadhouse, which is around 90km south of Alice Springs on the Sturt Highway. From Wallace Rockhole it’s around 120km to Alice Springs on bitumen. However, we decided to take a short cut through the Owen Springs reserve. It’s a 42km gravel track along the Hugh river bed or banks that joins the Sturt Highway just 10km north of Stuart Wells. The track was pretty easy to drive. On the way we stopped to inspect the old Owen Springs Homestead ruins. It was settled back in 1873 and is the first cattle station in the red center. We took a short side trip to the Redbank Waterhole to have our lunch. Then it was a short drive the Stuart Wells, where we setup camp. Chris and Kathy stayed two nights, but Sibba and I only one night.

Rainbow Valley.

Once we had set up our tents mid-afternoon, we headed out to Rainbow Valley. This is a very scenic rock formation that is best viewed at sunset. We got there around 4pm in the afternoon and there was only one car there. The three guys were playing cricket, one of them in full cricket attire and the other two with video equipment! It turned out that they were sent here by Cricket Australia to take some scenic landscape videos that are to be used in a documentary about the Australian Aboriginal Cricket team. This would be used in their tour to India, plus shown on SBS sometime next year. That explained the attire and all the camera gear!

As we were there well before sunset, we went for a walk along the paths to the sandstone formations. We wanted to see what it looked like from behind. There we found some smaller rock formations, one called “Mushroom Rock”. It is quite weathered and looks pretty weird. I couldn't see any Mushroom likeness, but then again I’m not a Mushroom specialist! However just a bit further was another rock formation. It had no name, but one glance and I gave the name “Frog Rock”, it’s like a frog sitting and gazing into the distance. You have to judge for yourself! Some of the weathering in the rocks is just amazing. They even reminded me of some of the lava formations back in Iceland!.

We went back to the visitor car park and set ourselves up in one of the pergolas with some drinks and nibbles. Once the sunset began I went and took a few photos. The sunset creates these wonderful colours in the rock, especially when only the rock is lit up and the ground below is in shadow. There is a dry clay pan in front of the rock formation, so during the wet it fills with water. You can see some stunning photos of the rock with its reflection in the water during the wet on the internet. We weren't willing to wait for that long, so we headed back to Stuarts Well Roadhouse.

Dinky the Singing Dingo.

At the roadhouse, they have a bar, so we headed straight for it to get a cold beer. We settled around a table in the bar area. We had seen a dingo earlier in the day and later in the evening it was there. The guy’s on the bar told us it was a pet and had been raised by Jim Cottereil, who owns the Stuart Wells Roadhouse. It was domesticated, but they told us not to try to pet it as it could snap at you, especially strangers. The Dingo is called Dinky.

As we sat at our table, the only patrons in the bar we noticed a piano with newspaper clippings above it. After looking at them we realized that this was the home of Dinky the Singing Dingo. Shortly after that, Jim arrived with Dinky and sat at on a chair next to the piano. He had a beer with us and we chatted away. Later he asked us if we wanted to hear Dinky sing. We of course agreed that it would be fantastic, especially Kylie as she was quite excited about Dinky.

We then put Kylie up on the piano and Jim got Dinky to perform his routine. It was just amazing to see the Dinky perform. Jim told that while Dinky was a puppy, his daughter was exercising on the piano. Dinky wanted to join in and over time learned to play and sing like his daughter. Quite amazing to see. As soon as Dinky jumped up on the keyboard, he sniffed Kylie to check her out. Kylie almost died! I took a video of the whole think, plus some photos, so enjoy Dinky the Dingo singing for us and Kylie the Kangaroo! After the performance we chatted more with Jim and it was fantastic. He has been in the tourist industry for a very long time and has lots of stories to tell. Dinky was quite interested in my legs and came around to lick them. I thought that it's not every day you have a Dingo licking your legs, perhaps before taking a bite!! I'm sure it was the salty sweat, rather than hunger. At least I hope so!!
Later in the evening we headed to bed as we were going to drive out to Chamber Pillar the following morning.