The Road to Tennant Creek

Our plan was to head towards Wycliffe Well today for a free camp, but we were travelling so well on these roads with NO speed limit that we made it all the way to Tennant Creek.

On the way we had a few stops - Aileron, Barrow Creek, Wycliffe Well and The Devils Marbles

Aileron Roadhouse - we made a coffee stop here and also to photograph the famous statues of The Aboriginal Man, Woman and Child. We got our photos but the guy in the roadhouse was very rude and the coffee was awful.  Oh well it can't all be perfect.

Famous  Statue of Aboriginal Man on the Hill

Barrow Creek
The Barrow Creek Pub was built in 1926. Unique is the only word for this place, certainly worth the visit. 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 Australia's most horrific and mystifying crimes.  On the night of 14 July, Bradley John Murdoch stopped a VW Combi Van driven by Peter Falconio, persuaded him out of the vehicle and shot him. He then tied up Falconio's girlfriend, Joanna Lees, who miraculously managed to escape and hide in the bushes and was eventually picked up by a truck driver and taken to the Barrow Creek Pub where the police were alerted.

Barrow Creek was also central to the last Aboriginal Massacre, when in 1928, Fred Brooks, an old dingo trapper, was killed at Coniston Station. The local mounted police constable formed a posse and killed an estimated 70 aborigines.

Wycliffe Well is famous for being the UFO capital of Australia. It is not a town, it is not even a village, but it is one of the more legendary places to stop along the Stuart Highway, and it was certainly on our list. We had some fun here and took some fun/silly photos with the 'Aliens'

The Devils Marbles
This fascinating geological wonder is at the intersection where all four Aboriginal language groups, who share custodianship of this spiritual place - and each have their variation of traditional stories here.

A devil spirit by the name of Arranji travelled through this valley, stopping to drink from a waterhole, dropping clusters of hair strings as he walked through. These formed the precariously balanced arrangements of granite boulders we see today. The boulders have been eroded over 1500 million years to form the present landscape.

The weather had turned really warm when we reached here, but we still managed a few good walks around and through these amazing rock formations

After over 8 hours on the road today we arrived at Tennant Creek.  We had been recommended to stay at the Outback Caravan Park so that is where we headed, and after settling in, a nice cold glass of bubbly and dinner, we strolled over to the camp BBQ area to be entertained by Jimmy Hooker, The Bush Tucker Man.

"Little Jimmy" is 66 years old, he was born in Mt Isa and has spent most of his life in the bush as a horse rider, stockman, yarn spinner, gold miner and prospector, a story teller and now a bush tucker man.

He reflects back over his early years with a twinkle in his eye and a broad smile. He ambles around the campfire kicking the coals and treats us to his life story in the form of poems and yarns, while feeding us damper and billy tea that he has cooked in the campfire.

After the show he demonstrated how the Aboriginal people have taught him to make certain medicines and treatments from local plants and flowers, and also explained about the healing properties in spiders web - yes, I did say spiders web, he had a handful of it that he had rolled into a ball and told us how if you place it on an open wound or a bite it will remove all the pain.  As you can imagine we haven't actually tried it yet.

What an eccentric fellow.  What an extraordinary life.
What a privilege it was for us to share the night with him.

Still no photos, but please check back later as I am sure they will eventually appear.