Vikings in Australia - Víkingar í Ástralíu

8^th of October

Sibba and I woke up early and packed our gear. We were not coming back to the camp site after Chambers Pillar like Chris and Kathy. They were coming back to stay another night and then head down to Adelaide. Sibba and I would either camp at Chambers Pillar one night or head back to Alice Springs via the old south gravel road. To get to Chambers Pillar we crossed the Hugh River Stock Route track, which is just around 11km south of Stuart Wells Roadhouse. It took us around 3 hours to get to Chambers Pillar. Once there we headed for a walk around the Pillar, plus you can walk up around 125 steps to view the graffiti that has been scratched into the sandstone over time. The oldest inscriptions date back to 1870, when John Ross and his team were exploring the area to establish a path for the overland telegraph line. Therefore the graffiti is of historical significance! Chambers Pillar is not the only thing there, next to is a small mound that possibly could have had a pillar as well. Further back is the Castle Rock, another sandstone formation. It’s just fantastic to see how the sandstone has been eroded and nature has crated these variations. After having lunch, Sibba and I decided to head straight back to Alice Springs. On the way we stopped at one of the old ruins of the Ghan sidings. The Ghan is a railway line that ran from Adelaide to Darwin across the centre. It is quite a historic railway line and all the sidings are historical buildings, or what is left of them. It runs pretty much parallel with the old south track to Alice. We only stopped at the one called Rodinga. Shortly after that our travelling partners, Chris and Kathy headed back to Stuart Wells along the Hugh River Stock route. Sibba and I headed into Alice Springs and checked into a motel to relax for a few days and work out the route for our trip back home. I also have to have the car serviced as we have now drive around 14,000km!!