With our batteries recharged, we continued north but only 70km to the Plenty Highway turnoff. We turned right here and travelled another 70km till we reached our destination, Gemtree Caravan Park. As the name suggests the main attraction here is gemstone fossicking, notably for garnets & zircons. We booked for a few days & given a shady spot under a crop of trees. Earlier in the day, Tomoko was unusually excited on hearing the batteries were fully charged & I soon discovered why. Twice a week a baked dinner is hosted, entirely prepared using camp ovens & our first night here fell on one of those evenings. Kate's Campoven Kitchen began with a guy with guitar playing in front of some heaters. The host, Kate takes all newcomers into the kitchen where she gives a run down on how the foods are prepared & instructions on how to get your tucker. Roast dinners are a rarity for us these days so the menu of beef, potatoes, pumpkin, onion, broccoli & cauliflower with cheese sauce, all covered with gravy was mouth watering stuff. It didn't take us long to polish off the meal & with the bitterly cold desert wind were keen to get back to the van. Kate put on an old movie of the property as entertainment & being the perfect guests, patiently sat through the short film. We were freezing & yawning & glad to see the credits rolling when she pulled out another home movie of her kids. Thankfully it didn't last too long & we rugged up for what was to be a very cold evening (nearby Alice Springs reaching a low of -2).
The next day we were up early for the garnet fossicking tour. It was tag-along style & after loading picks, shovels, sieves & 20L of water, headed off in a convoy. On the way a small herd of cattle were galloping towards the car in front of us but luckily for them, veered off the road at the last minute. After 1/2 hour we reached the gem fields. Judging by the many mounds, the area had already been worked extensively & it was difficult to choose where to go so Tomoko & I decided to go bush to work some 'virgin soil'. We formed quite a formidable team - a division of labour seeing Tomoko on the pick & shovel, while I sieved. After a couple of goes we got our first one. It was small but encouraged us on & we got a few more. After a while the gems dried up & we changed spots a few times with mixed results. We eventually returned to our original spot & found some more before going quiet again. I dug a little deeper where Tomoko had already been & scored some more before giving it away for the day. We returned to camp with a small tin of 30 red gemstones. We had them evaluated, coming away with 6 of cuttable quality. We were pretty happy with that, Tomoko already obsessing over which jewellery design she would choose.
Satisfied with our lucky strike, we were off the next day bound for Karlu Karlu aka The Devil's Marbles. It was another long drive & late afternoon we reached the Devil's Marbles Conservation Area, 100kms south of Tennant Creek. The free camp was almost full & we were lucky to get a site. Halfway through setting up, someone pointed out that dogs weren't allowed - clashing with the information we had on the place. A check of the noticeboard did in fact reveal that dogs weren't allowed in the camping area. However, there were other dogs here & the last thing I wanted to do was pack up again & try to find somewhere to stay in Tennant Creek at night. This view did not echo Tomoko's thoughts who wanted to leave immediately. She felt quite strongly about it but I was equally vehement we stay & that's what we ended up doing. I was in her bad books though. Shaka kept a low profile & was even driven to and from the nearby car park where he was permitted for his walks. I wandered around the rocks at dawn the next day, managing to get a nice photo or two.