’17 Jul: Darwin+ and The Red Center

Surprise, people.

“The exhibition, aptly named Tili Wiru Tjuta Nyakutjaku or ‘looking at lots of beautiful lights’ in local Pitjantjatjara is Bruce Munro’s largest work to date.

“As darkness falls, the 50,000 glass spheres gently come to life. From this dune top panoramic perspective, take in the vast scale of the installation. Then, covered under a sky brilliant with stars, Field of Light beckons you to explore and lose yourself momentarily in the rhythms of coloured light.”

I’m such a sucker for large-scale site-specific art projects.

Yup.

Tripods were not allowed anywhere in the Field of Light but at some point some people must have done it which you can confirm with a google image search. Based on the available images, a tripod really helped.

More.

More!

A farewell to Uluru-Kata Tjuta, Australia’s “most natural icon”.

Better than wiki I think, read this if you are interested:

https://parksaustralia.gov.au/uluru/

July 17

Leaving my motel at the Erldunda Roadhouse I noticed this sign on my door.

I also transported four very large Indigenous people the 50 kilometers from Mt Ebenezer Roadhouse where I stopped for gas and some food to Erldunda. I couldn’t believe they all fit. They also didn’t offer a single word of conversation once it became clear I would take them, and I didn’t attempt a picture either. It was something alright.

On the road again, leaving my stay at the Erldunda Roadhouse, there was a taste of what I had expected the whole journey to look like instead of all those plants you can see in the other pictures.

And speaking of the road, I did drive on the left side which I focused upon with laser intensity. I also signaled every turn with my windshield wipers.

I had a picture of a four-container Road Train earlier but it was turning a corner so you couldn’t get the full effect. Put another container on this guy and you can try to imagine what it takes to pass one.

Adding to the length by the way is the fact that they are roaring down the road, fast. I never did get stuck behind one but I did have several pass me on the small two-lane road where the side of the road falls off into rocks, dirt, and bushes. WhoooooSH.

This was the route I chose to drive – Alice to Uluru and back, and I still would have chosen this bit, but little did I know of the near-total absence of roadside attractions.

And it’s not that there weren’t places to stop. There were frequent rest areas and every 80-100 kilometers there’d be a roadhouse for refreshments and gas but still, you could look at normal penned-up emus, or you could stop here…

…and look at camels. You could ride one if you wanted, which I didn’t.

A café and rest stop with the camels.

On to Alice Springs, I returned the car and made my way here where I stayed in that little cottage back there, the only single room at this hostel, and it was fun.

I’ve got only one day in Alice Springs and I spent it strolling around.

The town is interesting…I just read Bill Bryson’s travelogue on his visit and everything he wrote still feels true and more well-spoken than whatever I could say.

He ends his commentary on an instruction to the government to do better by the Indigenous people. He speaks in some detail (and how could there be enough detail) on how it got to be the way it is but I’ve been soaking up a perspective that says no one asks the people themselves what they want, or when they do ask, they don’t like the answer.

I had given the car back (maybe in retrospect I would have gotten more out of my time if I’d kept the car) and decided to just see what I could on foot. Wow, I missed photos of a lot of it but here we have the Alice Springs Reptile Centre.

It was as modest as the sign suggests and packed with two tour groups arriving at the same time.

The groups hadn’t made it here yet. For the nocturnal animals, they light up the area during the night so they can sleep and then do this moon-like environment during the day so people can see them move around.

To conclude my time here in the Red Center we have a poster of some of the creatures in Australia who want to kill you, available at the Reptile Centre.

I had to put this here because I want it for the cover. When you see art work in the galleries you never know, really, who did them but I sat with him while he worked and we visited and smiled at each other and I bought the piece he was working on because I wanted it BAD!