It was a special day today in that, in terms of duration, we have reached the ¼ way mark of our expedition. Forty-five days down and 135 remaining. From our end, the time has flown by. Sitting here in the middle of nowhere, we have travelled so far and seen so much, and yet it doesn’t feel like we’ve been away from home, for such a long time already. We joked before we left, that there would be daily arguments and a strong chance of only one of us returning, and yet we’ve been so busy, arguments have barely flared up on a weekly basis, let alone daily as promised. They are quickly forgotten about though, as we move on, traversing new ground each day on our way around the block.

We thought this morning, that we were up early. Just a touch before 9:00AM, we woke to the bright sunlight streaming through the overhead vents, which we had left open overnight to help provide a flow of fresh air throughout the van. Opening the door to peer outside, we however found ourselves the only van left in the campground, all of the others already having pulled up stumps and got on their merry way.

Our schedule didn’t call for an early start today however. Our next stop is only 70 kilometres down the road, so it’s not like we will be spending the entire day on the road again. With that in mind, we started our day with a quick stroll about the area with the dogs, then slowly packed our gear away.

By the time we were turning out onto the highway to start our day, vans were already starting to stream back into the rest area, mostly by the look of things for their morning tea. Early morning people we are certainly not.

Less than an hour later, we were pulling into the Three Ways Roadhouse, at the intersection of the Barkly Highway and the Stuart Highway. Coming from the east as we had, you have a choice of turning left and heading south towards Alice Springs, about 500km away, or turning right towards Darwin, a mere 1000Km away. We will be eventually making our way north, but not before spending the remainder of the day around this area.

The roadhouse, is your typical outback service station, come restaurant, come bar, come pokies venue, come general store, come motel, come caravan park. It really does have it all. We checked in at just before 11:00AM and had our choice of sites from which to choose. Not that there was much choice. It was either a site in full sun, which was of course belting down by now, or a site with almost full sun, a slim shadow being cast by the spindly trees that somehow manage to survive the extreme climate. We decided to take advantage of the shade, as slight as it was, in a futile attempt to keep the temperatures to a minimum within the van. Our supposed grassed site was no better than our free campsite last night, in fact we may have been even worse off. There was no concrete slab upon which to easily level the van, and the advertised grass was nothing more than a couple of runners of tinder dry Buffalo grass. With each step we took as we set up the van, a little cloud of red dust would billow up, coating our unshod feet in a fake tan like orange mist.

With our van set up, and the air conditioner pumped up to full power, we wondered what it was we would do next. Our plans had us staying here a couple of days, to give us the chance to check out the nearby town of Tennant Creek. Only 20km down the road, we elected to take a drive down, before deciding whether we would stay on for longer or not.

So with the dogs safely staying behind in the van, as there was no indication as to whether or not it was allowable, we saddled up in ‘The Beast’ for the short trip into town. Driving into Tennant Creek I got the impression that it was a town of very little. A couple of shops, a supermarket or two, and three or four pubs, which even at this early hour appeared to be well patronised. If not for the daylight, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was nearing on closing time, such was the spillage of half inebriated drunkards onto the streets. Street corners seemed to be the meeting place of choice, as hoards of locals congregated on the gutters. A brief drive through the residential side of town provided us an alarming view of high security fences, creating compound like enclosures and occasional signs declaring particular premises at which alcohol was forbidden. Tennant Creek, we can safely say is not exactly a pretty tourist type town, and we were glad we had decided to stay out of town.

Out of the central township area, we found the information centre, where we were able to pick up all of the three brochures for things to do in Tennant Creek. I was beginning to think we weren’t going to need that extra day here. The information centre itself was the subject of one of the pamphlets, being that 2 museums were part of the complex. There was also meant to be underground mine tours, but nothing was mentioned about this, so we concentrated our efforts on the museum displays.

The first one was about the social history of the area, and walked us through the early days of Tennant Creek, up until the early 1960’s when running water was introduced to the town. If we had thought it looked like life was hard in this day and age, it would have been even tougher in the past. Built on mining, it was a town mostly made up of hard working, hard drinking, hard living single blokes. Judging by what we saw in town, apart maybe from the hard working bit, not much seems to have changed.

Inside the social history museum.

The second museum was a single room, with a wide variety of mineral deposits and ore containing rocks on display. It was actually quite intriguing to see the amazing designs that can be pulled directly from the earth. There was not much in the way of information here however, apart from the scientific, and almost unpronounceable, designations for the minerals at which we were peering.

Dumbfounded looking at rocks.

The other 2 pieces of literature we had collected, were both for attractions to the north of town, on our way back to the van. The first was at the old Telegraph Station. One link in the chain that provided Australias first telegraphic link to Britain, the permanent station was constructed way back in 1875. It is now a designated historical reserve, where the station, homestead and out buildings are on display.

The ‘Old Telegraph Station’.

The second was at the poor mans Devils Marbles. The Devils Marbles are a series of rock formations located about 100Km south of Tennant Creek. Given that we have decided to leave them for another trip, we did decide to visit ‘The Pebbles’. A short drive in, along a reasonably good, but extremely dusty track, brought us to a stand of orange and red rocks, perched atop one another. It was not overly exciting, and we stayed just long enough to have a wander around, and take some photos.

On top of the world at ‘The Pebbles’.

Back at the van, we found that we ought to be safe, a large contingent of military vehicles and personnel having taken over a large section of the park. They are making the trek from Adelaide to Darwin. They have 5 days to cover the 3000 kilometre distance, and here we were thinking we were doing it hard, putting in one single 600Km day yesterday.

We joined them by the pool for a while, and it was good to see that we are in safe hands, our nations defenders squirming about because the water was too cold. In their defence, I took a very brief dip myself, but despite the temperature being somewhere north of 30^oC, the water temperature was a great deal lower. It was invigorating to the point that I was finding it hard to gasp a breath.

With it proving no point to be sitting by the pool, if we weren’t going to make use of the clear waters, we dried ourselves off and returned to the van. Over a cooling drink, it was decided that we would spend tomorrow on the road again. Destination: Unknown.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.