Karlu Karlu (Devil's Marbles) Conservation Reserve

15 – 16 May 2022

We had booked a night at Karlu Karlu (Devil’s Marbles) so set off and fuelled up at our usual time of around 9:00am.Travelling north we called into the rest stop at the Tropic of Capricorn marker and now had a reference point for where we were in relation to the latitude of our old home in Townsville, Queensland. Rockhampton and Longreach are both on the Tropic of Capricorn so we knew we were making progress towards the “Top End”.

We found a picnic area along the way for a very late lunch and then continued on. There aren’t many rest areas with toilets along the 400 or so kilometres from Alice Springs. Karlu Karlu campground is one of the many Northern Territory National Parks that must be booked online and we had managed to get a good spot when booking a few days previously. The campground is fairly basic with sites around the outside of what is really just a carpark – but with fabulous views if the boulders and cracker sunset and sunrise views. There are drop toilets and a picnic area. A day use area is in another part of the park.

There are a number of walks and we took the short stroll that started near our site. We left it until very late in the afternoon to escape the heat, but we couldn’t escape the files. When we returned we sat inside until darkness had fallen and the numbers had reduced.

The sunrise was beautiful and we were up early – but so were the flies. We breakfasted inside the tent again, with the back canvas rolled up so we could enjoy the view. From Karlu Karlu we continued north on towards Tennant Creek.