Heading further north to Adelaide river............

As it is a few days since the last travel report, I better update the newsfromjude before anymore time passes. 

We had already been gone 14 days, and I was surprised when Barry announced that we were only half way to Darwin, from home, and thus to the top of Northern Territory. Which meant it was only 1/4 of the way if you count the return journey.

We left Alice Springs last Friday morning..................aiming for Tennant Creek.

We arrived at the TROPIC OF CAPRICORN not long after leaving Alice.

From the internet................In addition to being used to aid in dividing the Earth into different parts and marking the southern boundary of the tropics, the Tropic of Capricorn, like the Tropic of Cancer is also significant to the Earth's amount of solar insolation and the creation of seasons.

The roads are long out here in the centre......not a lot of traffic except cars and caravans and some trucks.

Another small settlement that we came across was AILERON 

from the internet..........Aileron is also home to the striking giant figure of the ‘Anmatjere Man’. Erected on 11th December 2005, the sculpture by Mark Egan stands at 12 metres high (the figure) with the spear tip taking it to 17 metre. Weighing 8 tonne the sculpture is made from a steel frame, mesh wire and ferris cement. He strikes an impressive figure as he overlooks Aileron and the surrounding region. The project included the Hollywood style Aileron sign and together with the figure took approximately 18 months to complete.

After 3 long years by himself, ‘Anmatjere Man’ finally had a family. Also created by the same sculptor Mark Egan, ‘Anmatjere Man’ was joined by a wife and child in December 2008. Unlike the original piece which took Mark Egan a year to create, ‘Anmatjere Woman and Child’ took only four months.

From the blue sky at Alice Springs we came across some clouds.......

BARROW CREEK was another small place............

Barrow Creek is a very small town, with a current population of 11, in the southern Northern Territory of Australia. It is located on the Stuart Highway, about 280 km north of Alice Springs, about halfway from there to Tennant Creek. The main feature of the town is the roadhouse/hotel. A number of mining companies are currently exploring in the area, although none of the current residents are involved in the mining industry.

............and wasn't somewhere I felt very comfortable to be, remembering the publicity from a few years ago about the following news..............

One pub settlement made infamous by the Peter Falconio murder. For most of its history Barrow Creek has been an isolated and tiny outpost on the Stuart Highway north of Alice Springs. Then, on 14 July 2001, it became a vital part of one of the Australian outback's most horrific and mystifying crimes.

WYCLIFFE WELL 

This town used to have a thriving business on the main highway, and Barry was surprised to see it was now closed down and derelict????

The bridge over the highway at Wycliffe Well.

...............and back out onto the highway again...........and the speed limit in Northern Territory is 130km per hour....most Australian states' maximum speed is usually 100 or sometimes 110.

DEVIL'S MARBLES was an amazing rock formation along the way............

Karlu Karlu / Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia located in the locality of Warumungu about 105 km south of Tennant Creek, and 393 km north of Alice Springs.

.............there were many caravans lined up at the camp site..............

We arrived at TENNANT CREEK about 3.30 in the afternoon, and needed to do some shopping at the local store..........

and once again the caravan park was surrounded by a high fence and barb wire and the gate was locked at night.

The next morning we were up earlier and back on the Stuart Highway again, and due to recent heavy rains, many sections of the road had been damaged, and were being repaired................. We were hoping to make it to Katherine by end of the day's travel???

The roadside vegetation was ever changing, and I loved these yellow flowering trees. Not sure what they are, but very pretty.  There were other flowering plants I could see, and would like to have taken photos of, but it's hard while driving, and I can't ask the driver to be stopping all the time. There were more trees now, and different grasses. We saw lots of termites nests along the way, and I shall talk more of these later.

DALY WATERS

Along the way we came across the sign to the Daly Waters pub, and Barry knew that I would want to see this place.......it is a very unique Aussie dot on the map!!!..........

.........and very well decorated inside with an eclectic range of ........

 

I know a few people who have been here, and they assure me that none of the below items are theirs??

..............donkeys are wandering the streets..................

......There was a country singer playing and singing some toe tapping music out the back of the pub, 

There were many vans camped at the back of the pub, and quite a few cabin accommodation units in town as well. We briefly thought about staying, but it was only just early afternoon and so we kept going. There were vans queued up waiting to get a place to stay.

LARRIMAH

By now we had dug out the summer clothes and put the winter woolies away. We journeyed further up the road, intending to reach Katherine, but finally decided that 640km in the day was more than we wanted to go. A decision was made to check out the little town (?) of Larrimah.

Another quaint, unique Aussie place.............

We booked into here for 1 night, and set up the van...................

.......and here again we had a pub with live music playing, which we enjoyed while dining that evening. And Barry discovered someone he knew from home! It certainly is a small world.

Larrimah was also a World War 2 HIstoric site.........and there was a Museum there with memorabilia.

We hardly eat out while travelling, and usually pack our lunches each day to eat in the car. 

  The next day we got back onto the Stuart Highway again, not sure how far we would get this time. We came across a lot of army vehicles on the road. We soon saw a sign to the Elsey National Park which was quite tropical to what we had seen so far.  And next was the sign to  

MATARANKA THERMAL POOLS.

It was amazing to see the water oozing up out of the ground and for it to be warm. Just a pity I forgot to pack my swimming gear wasn't it??? I did paddle my feet in the water though.

We then drove through Katherine, which is a much larger major town, and decided it was too early in the day to stop there for the night, and Darwin was probably too far, as we like to be off the highway well before night fall. The temperature was up to 33deg by now.

A decision was made to stop at ADELAIDE RIVER  for the night. The town park was booked out, and very crowded, so we decided to try the showgrounds, just out of the town. This was quite good and much less crowded, and much cheaper too. We set up the van and vegetated in front of the air conditioner, which we left on all night!!

 The weather had turned very hot by now, well, it seemed hot to us who were not acclimatised yet. We had still been using the heater at nights in Alice Springs, and were now turning the airconditioner on instead!! And we were hearing about the weather back at home, where it has been very very cold. Hard to believe the contrast.

I will finish this post here, which was Sunday evening and the last day of June. Another instalment of newsfromjude will detail a few days spent here in Adelaide River. Be back soon.

Blessings, From Jude