We are in the Red Centre and it’s hot, hot, hot! Yesterday the hot desert wind whipped up huge dust clouds, so the sky stayed murky all day. The country along the highway is like a flat red carpet with tufts of yellow spinifex. The only green is from scant new growth in parts where fire has blackened the ground .
And then, just when you get used to seeing a whole lot of the same along the endless straight road, the Devil’s Marbles appear!
These granite rocks do look like giant marbles -some skilfully piled up, some carelessly tossed away. It is difficult to imagine that once they were part of one rock face split into columns by water penetrating softer vertical veins, then being sculpted into spheres or flat rounds like cheese wheels. You can see Austin having fun playing with the devil’s marbles!
No wonder travellers driving kms after kms down the long, straight road and then seeing something like this, expect the unexpected. That’s obviously how the small place called Wycliffe became the UFO capital of Australia, and indeed there were some weird creatures hanging around the service station!
And - shortly after - it happened! One of the flying saucers must have interfered with our engine, as all by itself it slowed down and went into so-called “limp mode”.
It wasn’t a major drama. The car was still drivable and after giving it a rest over night, we made it slowly but surely to Alice Springs’ Ford Service.
While the Ford dealership here is communicating with head office about our car problem, we have got the okay to drive the car without towing the caravan. 
There’s a lot to explore here like the Desert Park, for example, a park dedicated to show off the flora and fauna of the red centre. 
It is amazing with what speed the raptures like the hobby falcon or the kites grasp their prey with their talons, or to see how a whistling kite cracks an Emu egg hammering it with a sharp stone.
We saw some other beautiful birds like the spinifex pigeons, the big bustard bush turkeys, the tiny “painted” and “zebra" finches which look like part of an aboriginal dot painting .
An aboriginal Elder told us that some dot paintings act as a map by pointing to the location of water. Water, we learned, is depicted as circles a stone would make when thrown into water. We learned about "skin names” of a “mob" and how the small tribes in central Australia have strict marital rules, where marriage is only permitted with "skin names” far enough removed on the ancestral tree in order to avoid genetic weaknesses. Marriage between different tribes is however only permitted if it is a matter of survival.
What all tribes have in common is that the hunting is strictly men’s “stuff”. Here in central Australia a non-returning, hook-like boomerang was used to render the prey incapable of moving and a cudgel to finish the job. The men also used long flexible spears which are inserted into a “woomera”, lengthening the throwing lever and strengthening the throw.
The gathering of food and medicine is women’s “stuff”. The women have wooden bowls for this purpose. Bigger ones are used to carry a baby or fetch water in.
One little bush peach seen here has the vitamin C of 3 oranges. Bush raisins are a popular treat. There is also of course the witchetty grub and the bush coconut, the larva of an insect which is attached to the bloodwood tree. Yummy!
This week there is an amazing light festival at Desert Park called “Parrtjima”, meaning in the local language something like “shedding light on the unknown”. 
Walking paths are lit by pretty lanterns and the Sadadeen Gneiss mountain range of Alice becomes a canvass for a twenty minutes light display. Beautiful by local artists painted lampshades and screens plus a dance floor changing colours and patterns all make for a special atmosphere.
Just a quick update: The warranty people have approved to replace the faulty turbo of our car, which should arrive tomorrow. We have been here now for a week, but we are glad, because there is so much to see in and around the Alice. That’s why I have split this blog in half. The continuation of this saga will follow shortly.