Packed up and left the cabin at Alice springs a little before 7 am.
Chris and Graeme also took off at the same time and we said our farewells. It was just getting light. We drove north they went south. Our first roadside stop was a brief one at Aileron where we saw the man up on the hill and the indigenous Lady and baby with Perentie sculptures. Pit stop Barrow creek which reminded Roy a bit of the movie Wolf Creek! Lots of flocks of little birds crossing the road. Too fast to identify. Finches probably. Stopped by the roadside for morning tea and got some red dirt and flora photos. Lunch at Karlu Karlu (the Devils Marbles). We drove to the Day park where we parked up & made some nice sandwiches. Roy had a chat with the Titanium crew that had been at Finke, and we had chicken sandwiches and soda water. Then we went for a bit of a walk around the Devil‘s marbles; walked up to the top of some of the marbles took a few photos. We headed back to the car, locked everything up and headed off north towards Tennant Creek.
We stopped at Tennant Creek to fill up the tank with fuel and then a little bit further onto three- ways roadhouse where we stopped for the night. It’s a lovely open campground – lovely trees and we’ve got a little cabin room. It’s got everything we need, like a king size bed tea and coffee huge bathroom accessible. A ramp up from the dirt with a 2-inch gap between the beginning of the ramp and the soil. Tea in the room and biscuits, top class establishment! No cooking facilities so we’ll be eating up at the roadhouse. We do have leftovers and we could heat them up on our own hot plate but we won’t be doing that tonight.
It turned out that the neighbours in the room next door included Malcolm Atworth who we had met at Alice Springs with Craig Boston and the vintage bikes. He and partner Lyn were headed to Darwin. We had a good chat on the verandah and then met up at 6 for dinner at the roadhouse. It was a bit of controlled mayhem at the roadhouse with a lot of customers due to not many staff, but everyone was good natured. Malcolm went to get drinks at the bar and returned to say that if it didn’t come in a can there was nothing available ! So, I grabbed a lemon soft drink from the fridge while Roy ordered rissoles and also barramundi for me. The boys had 4X to drink. We waited a long time for dinner but when it came it was big! Also, delicious and the fish batter was the lightest and fluffiest ever! It did feel a bit odd being watched through dinner by Freddie Kruger in the corner! An interesting sense of humour at these outback places. I signed up Lyn to my Facebook and we had an early night.
