Meanwhile the teenager gets very busy doing what teens do best... Recharging his iPhone. I have to say I take my hat off to him for ingenuity though!
We pack up and hit the road at 7.30am. Stop for fuel - $1.46 this time!
I have to say Tennant Ck itself was not an attractive town. It is predominantly aboriginal and suffers a very high crime rate and very low employment rate. Domestic violence is a major problem along with alcohol and drug abuse. The Caravan Park was great but the town not so much.
Driving south now and the landscape is definitely greener. It's still raining as we barrel along. The cows are hanging around the road a lot more because of the fresh grass on the runoff next to road, which makes the job of driving more difficult.
We also see more and more termite mounds although they're all pretty small and not on the scale of the huge ones we saw at Cape York. However, some of them have clothes on! Yes it seems to be a bit of a trend - some have hats and even arms and faces too!
An hour later we stop off at the Devils Marbles. What a totally amazing place like something out of a Martian scene. The place was completely awe-inspiring. The boulders so huge and ancient and still. Goosebump material.
We also spotted a flock of swallows nesting beneath one of huge overhangs. Probably been nesting there for hundreds if not thousands of years.
Awesome campground too, with fireplaces, BBQs, toilets and toilet paper!
The teenager called it a natural Parkour wonderland, which I think is a complement!
Absolutely loved it and wished we could camp there. It was only 25 degrees and softly raining which was perfect for our walk. But we have to get to Alice tonight so we hit the road again.
This stretch of the road has no speed limit woohoo oh except we can't go over 105kph! Oh we'll never mind!
We continued down the Stuart Hwy until we arrived at the Barrow Creek Old Telegraph Station and had a sticky. Such a beautiful cluster of historic buildings still with the old cooker and well. It was like a walk back through time as we quietly stepped into the cool interior with super thick walks and stone floors. There was an old blacksmith shop and stables out the back. All very well preserved and useful info plaques and photos. Very interesting and absolutely stunning photo op. Even the pooches enjoyed it!
Heading on, the temp had risen now to 41 degrees but the rain has stopped. We were making good time, so decided to drive straight through Ti Tree township and instead stop next at Red Centre Fatm just south of Ti Tree, for their "cheap" fuel $1.80 instead of $1.90!) and we would've sampled their legendary homemade mango ice cream and wine if it hadn't been for the rude backpacker staff locking the shop door and telling us to wait half an hour!
So we cut our losses and headed south for Alice Springs. We arrived at 1pm and found the Showgrounds, set up camp and then the boys went into town whilst Laura um well, did nothing haha. We picked a nice grassy (yes GRASSY), shady spot between the Rodeo Circuit and the Camel Racetrack - only in the outback would you get that choice!
About 5pm (5 mins after the above photo was taken), the sky suddenly turned absolutely black and out of nowhere, a wind started absolutely howling at about 80kph. It sounded like a freight train and that was before the rain started beating down a few moments later. It was absolutely terrifying and we all froze for a millisecond, even the dogs.
Steve and I yelled over the hurricane to Dan to get inside with the dogs and zip up all the windows. He was on it in a flash. Meanwhile Steve and Laura wrestled with the awning, fighting to get it down before the wind whipped it up and over the top of the van. It took all their strength and Laura was hanging off it at one point, but they did it and then just had time to retrieve the fridge shade before leaping into the van themselves.
The storm raged on; thunder rolled, lightning flashed while the wind buffeted poor Swifty and the rain came down in torrents. We all sat inside in the dry and decided to have Camping Nachos as specially requested by a certain fussy eater! Thank goodness for our indoor kitchen.
Outside it was as dark as night but only 5.30pm! About 6pm it had passed over enough that we dared venture out and assess the damage. Luckily we had survived fairly intact although the power had gone off so we were back to gas and battery power for the rest of the night, which was fine.
It continued to rain all night and was cold enough that we were glad of our sleeping bags!
Loving Dan's new long hair......
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