Day 122 - Tuesday 4 September 2012
Devils Marbles to Gem Tree
07.09.2012
We were packed up and ready to leave at 9:00am for our 400 kms trip to Gem Tree. For once we had a tail wind and spent most of the day cruising along in overdrive. We stopped for fuel at the Barrow Creek Roadhouse, and then continued on to the McDouall Stuart Memorial Rest Area for a coffee. The Memorial is quite close to the centre of Australia discovered by C T Madigan in 1930 using a plumb bob – his calculations were later verified in 1988 using a computer.
Di at the McDouall Stuart Memorial
Gem Tree is located about 70 kms east from the Stuart Highway along the Plenty Highway, and the turn-off is about 70 kms north of Alice Springs. We arrived at the Gem Tree Caravan Park (there is nothing else at Gem tree) at about 2:30 pm and booked in for two nights and also paid for the Zircon Fossicking Tour the next day. The park has generators that provide power from 6:30 am until 10:30 pm. As we will be here for a couple of days David set up the satellite dish so that we can catch up on the TV news.