Tales of the Territory: volume 2 - All aboard, toot, toot!

G'day

So the next leg of my NT adventure was the journey from Darwin down the Stuart Highway to Alice Springs. This is a trip of nearly a thousand miles so you want to make sure you're with a good group of people and with a good guide. Luckily, I had both. Whereas on the Kakadu trip we'd had a full bus of around 18 people, this time there were just eight of us, a much more manageable number for the guide, especially one who was as excellent as Ben (catchphrase, said just before we set off each time, "All aboard? Toot, toot!" - not as annoying as you might think). The sights along the way were things I didn't really know much about, which made them all the better because I had no expectations. All in all, the best of the three trips.

DAY 1: DARWIN TO KATHERINE GORGE

War cemetery in Adelaide Creek. Northern Australia was under serious threat of Japanese invasion during WWII and Darwin was destroyed by bombing. Some of the people killed in the attacks are buried here.

It was a long drive down the Highway but by the afternoon we'd arrived at Katherine Gorge. Here we are setting off on a boat trip down the Gorge. Lovely.

One man and his gorge

One man and his attempt to stay in the shade

One man and his helicopter. And yes, it was a real helicopter despite looking like a toy one in this photo.

View down the Gorge from the (real) helicopter.

DAY 2: KATHERINE TO TENNANT CREEK
After a surprisingly cold night (it got down to around 5 degrees and one sleeping bag really wasn't sufficient) we set off down the highway again. First stop was Mataranka and a beautiful thermal pool (no pic, sorry) that was built by soldiers during the war - for their officers. Luckily, these days anyone can swim there - and given the cold morning, once we were in we didn't want to get out. Eventually we did, Ben said "All aboard, toot, toot!" and we were off again.

Don't panic! Sign just off the Stuart Highway. That's like no petrol from Newcastle to London. That's a long way.

After a long drive, Ben the driver suggested we got pizzas in Tennant Creek for dinner. We agreed as it was getting late and nobody was in the mood for cooking. Unfortunately Tennant Creek is so rough it makes Deptford look like Primrose Hill. The pizza place was closed - because the owner had had his jaw broken the week before by local youths - so we headed to Red Rooster (an Aussie KFC) past more gangs just wandering the streets. We were glad to get out of town and to our camp for the night - even though it was a horse farm with a distinctly horsey smell everywhere. A camp fire and some food helped though. As did two sleeping bags.

DAY 3: TENNANT CREEK TO ALICE SPRINGS

Next morning it was a very early start. Not because we had much further to go to get to Alice Springs, but because we wanted to be at the Devil's Marble for sunrise.

Sunrise near the Devil's Marbles.

Too big even for me to lose.

A dingo near the marbles.

We come in peace! The small stops along the highway will do anything to get people to stop and spend some money. This place is (allegedly) Australia's UFO central and they make the most of it with lots of newspaper clippings about sightings and weird cut-outs.

Despite the cold nights, up to this point we were techincally in the tropics. To the left of this sign we became non-tropical as we headed south of the Tropic of Capricorn.

Alice Springs - like Tennant Creek but bigger. Years ago I wandered round happily on my own. This time we were warned to get cabs everywhere - so I did. This is is the view from ANZAC hill.

And with that the second leg of the trip was over. Ben gave one more "Toot, toot!" and then it was an early night before an early start the next day.

Come back soon for more!

G'bye.

Cliff