A real outback experience
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| Driving over claypan near Chambers Pillar |
Today we did a 300km round trip on dirt roads and over claypans to get to Chambers Pillar Historical Reserve in the Simpson Desert. On the way we saw several flocks of budgerigars swirling around the car. They fly so fast all you see is the flash of yellow and green as they go over.
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| Chambers Pillar NT |
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| Chambers Pillar NT |
Chambers Pillar is highly visible from every direction on the surrounding desert plain so it was a landmark for early explorers, surveyors for the telegraph company and white settlers finding their way through central Australia on the way to 'opening up' the country. There are steps installed to climb up part of the pillar and from here you can see the names early Europeans carved into the rock - the oldest is in the 1870's. These days this would be called graffiti and would be frowned upon, but it is an interesting historical record. Standing up there and being able to see absolutely no signs of human activity for many kilometres in every direction was awe inspiring [we were the only people there at that point].
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