Alice to Daly Waters

Wednesday 22^nd June

Alice Springs to Tennant Creek

We left Alice Springs at about 9.30 heading north, hoping to get as far as Wycliffe Well about 370km away.  We stopped at CENTRAL MOUNT STUART for an early lunch, and then at BARROW CREEK (where we met the roadman with the snake on the way down) for fuel.  We then continued on to WYCLIFFE WELL arriving there at about 2.30pm.

At this stage we had decided we may as well continue on to TENNANT CREEK as we all felt good enough to carry on. After a refreshment break and a beer, we continued on to TENNANT CREEK, arriving there just after 4.00pm.  A distance of 525 km, our longest haul with the van so far.

We booked in to the same motor camp we had used on the way down, and enjoyed another evening with Jimmy Hooper, the bushman.  You may remember we tried witchetty grubs last time we went to his show.  Tonight it was kangaroo tail roasted in the fire.  It was beautiful, but like last time, we were among the few prepared to give it a try.

Thursday 23^rd June

Tennant Creek to Daly Waters.

We were away from Tennant Creek by 9.30 heading north again.  This time we hoped to get as far as DALY WATERS, about 420 km away.  We stopped for fuel at RENNER SPRINGS, and then called in to the old drover’s town of NEWCASTLE WATERS for a look at their historic old pub and to have some lunch. 

About half way between RENNER SPRINGS and NEWCASTLE WATERS we met a couple of Road Trains which had just pulled out onto the road from the BARKLY STOCK ROUTE.  The dust falling off these trucks as they picked up speed on the sealed road after travelling for hundreds of kilometres on the dirt roads, was incredible. 

North of NEWCASTLE WATERS we met another one which had just come off the BUCHANNAN HIGHWAY, with the same clouds of dust falling off it.  Quite impressive.

The road north was much the same as we had been travelling, long flat straights with nothing much to see except the scrub on both sides of the road.   

We still can’t get over the lack of cattle, or stock of any kind.  It’s nothing for us to travel all day and not see any cattle, despite the fact that we are travelling through some of the biggest cattle stations in the world.  Even kangaroos and emus seem to have become non-existent.

We got to DALY WATERS at about 4.00pm, to find the motor camp pretty well full, however they jammed us in along with hundreds of other campers and caravans.  DALY WATERS is famous for its pub.  Built in 1930, it is full of character, and is particularly know for its collection of women’s unmentionables.

How or why this fad started is not known, but it seems a lot of women who visit the pub get an unresistable urge to remove their underthings and hang them wherever they can in the pub.  I wasn’t lucky enough to see this ritual occur, and Christel said she wasn’t about to oblige, but I did notice she took a very long time when she went back to the bar to go  to the toilet later that night.

Their nightly meal menu is beef or barra, the latter being the famous Barramundi, which is found in most Northern Territory waters.  After being told the servings were huge, we decided to get one meal of each, split them, and share with Cameron.  This worked out great and we all had a good feed of both.  Sorry, but have to say it, Barra tastes better than Snapper.

We ate our meal in the indoor/outdoor dining room, while we listened to a bloke singing songs accompanied by his guitar.  After he had finished, another guy, calling himself ‘Chilli’, came on and did a one man comedy and singing show. 

He was excellent and had every one in stitches.  Most of his jokes were beauts, and his poems were extremely funny. We ended up buying a CD of his at the end of the show.  It was basically a recording of what we had just listened to, but I wanted it for some of his jokes and poems.

 As we travelled north, we noticed the temperatures starting to climb. It was good to be away from those zero degree nights we had been experiencing in Alice.  At last we are back in the warm weather.  Tomorrow will be a short trip from Daly Waters to Mataranka and its famous Hot Springs.