Nov 7, 2012 - Barkly homestead to wauchope via tennant creek and the devils marbles.

Left Barkly homestead this morning and headed to the three ways corner. The roads are a little redder and where off to a good start as we see a lucky lizard cross the road. After a stop on the way to work out what master kensell wants we sit at the roadhouse with dad staring at the map. I can tell he so desperately wants to turn right and head to Darwin. But common sense kicks in and he knows its too late in the year to go. Next stop the Tennant. Creek telegraph station which in the 1870s was the main station responsible for keeping up...

Aug 18, 2012 - Musings whilst travelling

….the ability to make something out of nothing - tourist brochures have this manic need to portray their area as having the largest, the biggest, the longest, the smelliest, the ripest, the hottest, the coldest...tourist attraction in the world My tourist geography and history trip so far has opened my eyes to the vast involvement of Oz with WW2 - the evidence is everywhere! You start to see a pattern in Australian history develop - usual type of history throughout - mining, 2WW dugouts and shelters, Victorian buildings, sepia photos of...

Aug 5, 2012 - Northern Territory here we come

Sorry for no blog yesterday. I saved the photos and then the network kicked me off and wouldn't let me back. Diane said it was her turn again. Here she comes. Was supposed to be 1deg overnight in Mt Isa,so stayed in bed a bit longer before packing up. Met our park neighbours only to find they were from Canningvale WA. Their car broke down 10 days ago & they were still waiting for parts, but on the up side they were with the Rac ultimate breakdown service, & they had been great, paid for their accommodation & rental car & organised repairs....

Aug 1, 2012 - Tennant Creek

Today we drove to Tennant Creek and went to the Bill Allen lookout. We went to supermarket to get some groceries. We went to the overland telegraph station just out of town and saw the buildings there and we had a key to open the cellar, kitchen and Telegraph office. We had lunch there too. On the way back to town we went Mary Ann Lake and played on the playground but Keagan twisted his ankle. We came to the Outback Caravan Park and did some school work while mum did the washing. We also played some tennis and relaxed. That night, Mum and...

Jul 26, 2012 - Mataranka to Threeways Roadhouse

We woke up at 2 am with our air bed going down and us being on the floor. Being too tired and our pump being too loud we dealt with it and surprisingly woke up not sore!!! I guess in the olden days thats how they did it - what are we complaining about? Morning had arrived and the first touch of cold was upon us....whilst enjoying breaky, peacocks were walking around as well as numerous euros. They are obvisously use to tourists. First stop along the road was the uniquely advertised "Frans Devonshire Teahouse," selling homemade bakery foods...

Jan 22, 2012 - Day 9 - Tennant Creek

Today was really a day of driving. Once we had Brekkie and been to the supermarket etc we headed north out of Alice on the Stuart Highway. To be honest there really isn't a great deal to see, stopped at most of the towns/petrol stations to make sure we always had enough fuel. Treated ourselves to an ice Lolly most times too (really living in the lap of luxury! ) there was an old telegraph station or two to have a look at, really nice old buildings built in the traditional stone villa style, they linked Darwin the Adelaide and there fore oz...

Nov 7, 2011 - Tennant Creek - NT - Nov 7

We got away just after 7am - gained a half hour at the Border with NT, and arrived at our planned overnighter at 1pm, so decided to push on - did 631kms today, about twice our preferred mileage, but we are now in Tennant Creek in the NT. Just an overnight stay here then another at the UFO Capital of Wycliffe Well, before hitting the Alice on Wednesday. Very hot, pretty humid still with thunder heads hanging around, but doing nothing as yet!! Sad to leave Queensland - we have thoroughly enjoyed our 3 months-to-the-day in this lovely...

Jul 16, 2011 - A Long Day and 700KM On The Road

Earlyish start today as we had our helicopter flights over the gorge Arrived at the airfield in good time ready and rearing for our flight. Some delays while they tried to sort out some problem with the chopper but in the end they had to uncover their other one for the flight. A little late, we finally made it into the air and were very quickly following the Katherine River along to the gorges. What an incredible sight! Just miles and miles and miles of flat countryside with sparse vegetation to behold with a huge scar across the...

Jul 9, 2011 - Aus - Day 64 - 67 - The Rescue

The past four days have been packed full of driving! We've covered appx. 2300kms and seen quite a bit of the Australian Outback, finally arriving around the center of the country in the area of Alice Springs. We've seen many different birds (small, medium, big, and huge), free range cows, wild horses, kangaroos, and we even saw our first ever wild Emu! The scenery has consisted mostly of desert land, however not the sandy red desert we somewhat expected... more of a yellow grass desert, quite similar to Arizona in many places. On The 8th,...

Jul 6, 2011 - Renner Springs

Wednesday 6 July: Sunny 14 - 29 degrees An early start for our big drive of 650k from Avon Downs along the Barkly Hwy and onto the Stuart Hwy to Renner Springs... Why you ask? well we needed to find a place to watch the State of Origin 3!!!!! LOL And Renner Springs has its own little dessert hotel...and surprisingly at nice little 17.5m pool which was a welcome site..especially with this heat. Landscape is very baron and dry... and today the GPS told us that we actually travelled 450k without turning a corner...amazing! Off to the pub to...

Jul 5, 2011 - Avon Downs & Mt Isa

Tuesday 5 July 2011: Sunny 14 - 29 degrees After a magic night with new friends by the campfire we left Corella Dam at 8am headed for Mt Isa. A short visit to the Info Centre and the town to get my mobile fixed, buy some Rum :) and visit the lookout....and its off on the road again to our overnight free camp at Avon Downs..... At 2pm today we crossed from QLD into the NT...we were going to stop for a picy, but the sign was so small we missed it...will catch it on the way back.. Landscape was definately outback today...with plains of grass...

Jun 18, 2011 - Tennant Creek/Banka Banka Stn.

15th June. After a sleepless night we are heading back to Banka Banka, we stopped in Tennant Creek to buy some fresh groceries then it was on the road again. We stopped at Three Ways Roadhouse for lunch before travelling the last ninety klms. Our reception when we arrived was special, Valda and Dave Smith the current managers, have been nothing short of marvellous, they phone ahead to the Tennant Creek Hospital on the 31st May, then Dave was driving to Alice Springs so he bought some things for us (Wayne’s phone, a change of clothes for us...