#route 87

[dubmill]

River Thames, Millbank, London; 31.1.2018

[hwheat2021]

August 13 still heading north passed Karlwekarlwe

We have visited the Devil’s Marbles (Karlwekarlwe) in the Davenport Range before but we couldn’t pass without taking another look. The whole area is littered with granite boulders. The ‘marbles’ are remnants from a solid mass of granite the bulk of which still lies beneath them; they were formed by that mass breaking down and being eroded. Below the jumble of giant boulders are caverns.

This is a sacred place to the traditional owners and is known by the name Karlwekarlwe which in the local language literally translates as ‘round objects’, but it means so much more than that.

Kwerrwympe: a women’s dreaming story. “Two Warumungu ladies were travelling from Munga Munga (near Tennant Creek) to Karlwekarlwe in the dreaming time. Kaytrtye and Anmatyarr women from the south met together with Warumungu ladies at Karlwekarlwe. Here they made a big ceremony.. They were showing each other their dreaming (stories), all those Kwerrwympe. Before whate people came, Aboriginal people made big ceremonies here about thesed Kwerruymp.” Told by a senior Traditional Owner.

Aboriginl people believe that people from the dreaming at Karlwekarlwe live in the caves under the rocks here. “They are real people like us. They are feared because if they entice you to follow, you can’t go back”. Ït happened like that for my cousin. He disappeared. The old people made a big ceremony singing the ground and the rocks to make them let my cousin come back. We’ve lost that song now. We’ve got no song to bring children back.” Told by a senior Traditional owner.

Heading further north we came across this sign. There are a number of old sign board like this along Route 87, this one is at Three Ways Roadhouse at the junction of the Stuart Hwy and the Barkly Hwy (Route 66 – our very own!). We were heading for Dunmara and the turn off to the Buchanan Hwy but we stopped overnight in a huge bleak roadside ‘rest area’ along with lots of other campers tucked amongst the scrub. On a trivial note: there is only one toilet dump point between Alice and Katherine; hard to believe on a heavily used tourist route!

[ulsterpublishing]

Thruway in Saugerties (Will Dendis)