Alice Springs to Darwin

We left Alice Springs on Saturday May 4, just in time to escape the long weekend which we knew nothing about. Apparently, there is a horse race meeting over the weekend and everyone descends on the town. So we were fortunate in getting away before the onslaught.

When you leave Alice Springs for the north, the road takes a bit of a climb for a few km and then you seem to level out - but it’s strange, you have this feeling that you’re continually climbing as you drive on. I remember I had this same sensation on the last trip, and it continued for 100's of km. I’d like to see a survey map of the Stuart Highway and plot the variation in elevation above sea level along the way. Even TJ commented on the same sensation.

TJB Inside the Barrow Creek Roadhouse

We stopped at Barrow Creek Roadhouse - which is adjacent to the old Telegraph repeater station for the original OT Line and latterly, infamous for the location where Paul Falconio met his end - and his girlfriend had a lucky escape. Got talking to the lady behind the bar who is originally from Ireland and was just “sitting” the store for a family member. She told us a bit about the Telegraph Station and how both the Stationmaster and a Linesman were  speared and killed by the Aborigines in 1874. 

Barrow Creek Telegraph Station 2013

Their grave sites are adjacent to the Telegraph Station, which is in surprisingly good condition, and you can wander through at your leisure - which I did. It’s interesting to wander through places like this - you get to see some really cool stuff, especially the inventions that came out of the Blacksmith shop. Some very clever ideas, executed with some seriously good workmanship. The walls on the residential buildings are about 12” (300mm) thick and built from local rock. Even in the heat of the day - it was about mid afternoon when I wandered through and around 35C - the rooms were remarkably cool and I would say about 10C cooler. 

Barrow Creek Telegraph Station 1906

But given the location, which is beyond the back of no-where, I’m guessing you’d have to be very comfortable with your own company - or mad in the first place. Imagine living where there’s nothing and no-one, other than the people who work at the station (and there’s no guaranteeing you’d like them anyway), the local Aboriginals who probably don’t like you being there in the first place (hence the odd spear through the window), and about every 6 months, you get a supply wagon come through with provisions - weather depending. And finally of course, there are the ever present flies - those bloody buzzing, crawling, irritating little sods - besides the mosquito, the most useless insect to inhabit this earth - and they all live in Australia because I’m sure word got out about my visit and they all decided to descend on Barrow Creek mid afternoon on May 4. As a firm believer in Evolution, how did this branch of the evolutionary landscape go so wrong ?. That fly-in-the-ointment comment must have come from Darwin as he reached for his Aeroguard.

Next stop was Wycliffe Well. It’s claim to fame ?. UFO’s ..... now I’m all for questioning these weird things that float about in our skies, but I have to question why Aliens choose to show themselves at Wycliffe Well these days rather than Roswell in the USA which is, after all, UFO central. Now in Roswell, it is claimed, an alien spacecraft crashed nearby the town in July 1947, and the occupants - extra-terrestrials no less - were killed. These Buck Roger types of Planet X reportedly had no ID so they were immediately suspected of being Aliens. According to State law at the time, these blow-ins should have been deported back to where they came from ... but then, as the story goes, they were then sequestered away by the US Military for the purpose of performing medical examinations etc etc .... and on and on the story went. So in the end, the whole episode made money for some , such as newspapers and other comparable Carpetbagger organisations, and simply made others mad, like the US Military who denied any of this ever happened. 

So who are we to believe; the Journalists who reported the story - those moral and ethical gate-keepers entrusted by the public at large to report factually, without bias and without any consideration of increasing circulation through emotionally charged sensationalism; or the Military, who, on the odd occasion, kill people. 

Tough call .....

So Australia now has its own Roswell in the form of Wycliffe Well. Perhaps  ET  called Wycliffe Well when he phoned home.

Devils Marbles - upon arrival

We overnighted at The Devils Marbles, just north of the town of Wauchope. This is a NT State Park and has the most interesting formation of rocks you’ll ever see. The camp site is behind the main rock formation, although that being said, there are many rock formations covering I would guess, around 50 to 100 acres. There are rocks perched on other rocks that you would swear had been placed there by someone. But a wander through this marvel at both sunset and sunrise is well worth the effort. The camping area has a toilet (a “long drop” loo - no more explanation necessary) and has solid iron fire-places for those  folks that want a BBQ or just want to sit around a fire at night chatting. We had no lighting - other than a torch - but it was a great experience and I would encourage anyone who is traveling through this way to take the time and explore what Mother nature can provide - although we still reckon some bloke with an excavator placed all these rocks there before Stuart came through the area around 1862 ..... putting that doubt aside, I've included several photos because these rock formations cannot be represented by just one photo - they are a mind boggling collection of boulders supporting other boulders - and it's all natural erosion. 

Devils Marbles - with a Wycliffe Wellian UFO Light Source

Devils Marbles - Sunrise - note the sky colouring.

Sunday May 5 saw us on the road again, heading for Daly Waters. Well, it had to happen at some point and sure enough - we got ripped off at the Three-Ways Caravan park - paid $6 for a bloody cold shower because the hot water system didn’t work, something they forgot to mention when we handed over the money. Even their fuel price was 14 cents per litre higher than more remote places like Elliot and Mundarra further north. And the drop-kick behind the counter, besides having totally soul-less eyes, was hovering near the bottom of the scale on the service geiger counter. So I now understand why they call it Three-Ways; they find three ways to rip you off; ie $6 cold showers, high petrol prices and soul-less service to the point where you feel like a bit of self inflicted wrist slashing - just to make you feel better. So if you’re traveling up this way, I strongly recommend you accelerate past this blight on the Stuart Highway landscape.

The trip to Daly Waters was uneventful, except for Three-Ways of course, but as we travel, I’ve noticed a lot of Wedgetail Eagles along the way this time, more so than last trip. They are magnificent birds, with huge wingspans up to 2 metres I’m told, but they’re very shy. They operate in pairs, with one feeding on the ever-present road kill of Kangaroo or Wallaby while its mate stays in a tree not far away as a lookout. The approach of a car causes the one in the tree to fly off, which signals the other that things aren’t safe - so away he/she goes as well. Perfect harmony - I’ve seen this every time I spot one feeding by the roadside. I’ve also seen the result of a few that were late in leaving.

Daly Waters Pub - Exterior

When we pulled in to Daly Waters, there was a Rodeo that had just finished and the participants were in the throes of getting ready to leave. The guy at the park was complaining about the noise they’d been making the previous nights. On the night we were there (May 5), these Rodeo blokes took over the pub - as well as taking over ownership of a 20 litre container of fuel which at the time belonged to me - problem was, they omitted to ask me; ie the bastards stole it. We heard them coming past the van late at night - swearing, loud and obnoxious - we were the van right by the path leading from the pub to their campsite. So, all the noise must have been a cover for some low-life to sneak up to the back of the van and steal it. 

Daly Waters Pub - Interior

So the next morning when we realized we’d been ripped off, we showered, packed and were gone by 7.30am - couldn’t get away fast enough because the episode left a really bad taste for both of us. We thought about confronting them, but with 30+ of them and just us two weaklings (by comparison), our hospital expenses would have far outweighed any misplaced bravado ..... needless to say, our opinion of Rodeo types is not high.

Our next destination was Darwin - a 570 km trip, which we did easily. Nothing more eventful along the way - thankfully.