Camping at Devils Marbles

Camping at Devils Marbles (Karlu Karlu)

Not the best camp ground in the world, but the sunset and sunrise makes it worth sleeping at this magic spot.

Devils Marbles, just off the Stuart Highway, Northern Territory.

It's no wonder that brilliant Aussie landscape photographer Ken Duncan only refers to this classic  landmark as "God's Marbles". Pretty much in the middle of the Northern Territory, the marbles are a spectacular sight and combine so much of what we photographers love about our arid regions: brilliant red rock that gets redder at sunset and sunrise, a fairly harsh, flat landscape around it, and fantastic geometric shapes that are a photographer's dream.
It has a few Indigenous names, but the most commonly sprouted is Karlu Karlu. For a few years many of us were told that to the "Aboriginal people" (not sure which group) these large 1.6 billion-year-old granite formations were the Rainbow Serpent's eggs. No one I spoke to seems to know where this idea came from, and the Alyawarre people I interviewed recently referred to instead a vast Dreaming figure who wore a hair belt. The hair belt became dirty, and as he spun around, bits of mud and hair came flying off the belt to form Karlu Karlu.

Sunrise, Karlu Karlu

To the casual visitor, the site is "in the middle of nowhere". It's a decent drive of four hours from Alice, and an hour from Tennant Creek, so many people who are passing through tend to go there in the middle of the day. It's pretty much the worst time to be there. It's undoubtedly hot (with little shade anywhere) and the boulders themselves are at their colourless worst.
If you want to see them early morning and late evening, you can either stay at the Wauchope Hotel about 15 minutes drive down the road (nothing to rave about, but clean sheets and a telly), or you can camp.

Under an almost full moon

The campground is right at the Devils Marbles. I slept in a swag, and with an almost full moon, had a glorious, ever-changing view of the features all night. Great for star-trail photography etc, and just being in such a wonderful place. It's no effort to get up for sunrise and you don't need to drive anywhere - you can just pop out of bed and you are right in the area. There's plenty of opportunity then to walk around the huge area and look at many of the features as the sun plays its golden light over the surfaces, and the shadows gradually change.
The campground, however, has no water and very little shade. There are probably two campsites that have a decent tree, but the other 20 or so don't - so either get there early and grab the good sites, or expect to have no shade! Once again, there's no water (and if you are there during the middle of the day, you'll need some), but there are pit toilets. The one furthest away from the campsites (only about 100m away) is not surprisingly the least smelly.
There are little fireplaces at most of the campsites, but you'll need to bring your own firewood.
Overall, it was a pleasure to finally get to this spot of which I've seen so many photos  (and now have so many photos of my own). I'm really glad I camped there, to hang around for the sunset and sunrise, and fully recommend sleeping in a swag, which you can set up with your own personal view of the marbles, in the hotel of a thousand stars.

Sunset, Karlu Karlu

www.kensbigbackyard.com.au