Day 60: From 41 Mile Bore to Taylor’s Creek (31/07/12)

Our first morning in the Northern Territory was pleasantly benign. We had expected the nights to be cooler as we headed into the interior, but it wasn’t happening for us yet. After another leisurely breakfast we got ourselves into travelling mode again. This involved little work, as we had left the caravan hitched. We still managed to be one of the last ones away, not counting the French, whose morning chaos seemed to be every bit as big as their evening chaos. So, au revoir to them and we were off towards Tennant Creek. The Barkly Highway joins the Stuart Highway 15 kms north of Tennant Creek, and this marked the spot where we would be turning onto the southward leg of our journey.

Three Ways, where the Barkly and Stuart Highways meet. We were going south from here.

Tennant Creek was our first Territorial town and, quite frankly, depressing. It is supposed to have made a lot of progress according to what we have read in the press, but the number of aboriginal folk just wandering aimlessly around the streets was enormous. We did not see many overtly drunk people – that is what we understand the “progress” to be about, but we did see large numbers of able-bodied young men and children of school age with nothing to do. When we tried to greet some ladies we could not make eye contact and got no reply. Puzzling and depressing.

The Tennant Creek Telegraph Station, now an interesting museum.

We had a look at the gold mining museum and then moved on, glad to be away. The puzzle of aboriginal relations, welfare etc kept our minds busy as we drove on. We had already been taken aback in Normanton by young aboriginal children asking Joke for money. They were well dressed, sitting in Mum’s four-wheel-drive which was better than our vehicle. We had seen and heard the racist attitudes in Mt Isa among the whites which echoed my experience in South Africa a long time ago. Now we were here in the Territory where everything was going to be made right for the aboriginals and it manifestly wasn’t!

We stopped for lunch at the Devil’s Marbles, a great spot which was also a free camp. The big rocks were impressive, as was the dingo which casually trotted into the parking area as we were about to take off. We stopped to take pictures, and got to talking to a Victorian couple who gave us their take on what was worth seeing in the Alice Springs area.

Johanna WonderWoman, splits rocks without raising a sweat!

Large rock on other rocks: Devil's Marbles

Another large rock. I said to Joke: "What if I get the jack out & see if I can budge it?". "Don't you dare!", she said, "or I'll wurgle your nurgles!"

Sliced rock loaf with people for size comparison.

Dingo pretending to be cool about lying down in the car park

Lunch had been late-ish so we aimed for a spot not much further down the road. Before we got to it, we tanked petrol at Wycliffe Well, the UFO Capital of Australia. There were any number of tacky displays to back up this claim, but the only tangible evidence we got was the fuel price: 199.9 cents per litre: this proved that their fuel deliveries must be by flying saucer which, as everybody knows, is the most expensive way to transport fuel in the universe!

Petrol-saucer delivery drivers at Wycliffe Well. They were a bit grumpy because they couldn't get through to the Mars Depot on Telstra. What were they expecting??

Taylor’s Creek was just another 50 kms down the road from Wycliffe Well, far enough though to ensure a good night’s sleep without the young folk from Rigel or Aldebaran swooping or dive-bombing over our little caravan in their souped-up saucers.

There was a Telstra tower on a foothill of the Osborne Range opposite the free camp. Because it was there I had to climb up to it, to be rewarded with great views of endless plains north and mysterious mountain ranges south and east. I was also rewarded with phone connection, so I rang Niels and woke him from a deep sleep. He was at work at the time.

Taylor's Creek was big on size, but small on water

Taylor's Creek camp from the Telstra tower. Our van is at the right.

Another range of mountains 40 kms to the south. The road literally had 1 bend in it to get there.

With the alien crowd taken care of as noted above, we also ensured we would have no earthly aliens parked next to us. We parked the caravan in soft sand which would look totally uninviting to bongo vans. A good night’s rest followed.

Another Territorial sunset

A quick check for noisy (local) aliens.

Sunset Dunny