Mt Isa to Alice (well almost)

Last time I blogged we were in the Isa …We had to make a big decision while staying here but little did we know that a much bigger and sadder decision awaited us at our next destination…SO grab that cuppa and join us for our next leg of the journey we’re off to Alice.

While staying in Mount Isa we needed to make a decision that we had been putting off for quite some time…. from Tenant creek are we heading North (to Darwin) or South (to Alice and S.A) ???

We always had intensions to travel north after maybe a side trip down to Alice, but we had been a little worried that we may have left things a little late as the build up to the wet season was (by fellow travelers accounts) getting a little stifling so after much deliberation we finally decided that rather than be speeding our way through places we would head onto Alice and from Alice we would continue south to South Australia.

We left the Isa with the excitement that before long we would finally be leaving our home state of Qld for the first time in the 4 months we had been on the road.

So we left our Big 4 Mount Isa home and started to make our way west…..and before we knew it we had reached the boarder…….Woohoo !!! So here we were finally in the Northern Territory.

We got back into our Patrol and were amazed to see the 130 km speed limit signs…..Anthony (A.C) told me that it wasn’t that long ago that the N.T had no limit on these roads….. now….. Yes this would be fun if you had a Ferrari but when you are towing a 24ft big bertha caravan with a 4×4 …it’s not like your gunna be able to test the limit huh ??

We drove and drove until I thought I was going to go a little insane……I kept trying to talk A.C into stopping for the day and he kept sneaking an extra 100km here and there…..he did make a point though…… that being…. we may as well be in the car traveling then on the side of the road in the red dust…… as we had decided to have a free camp that night after finding quite a few in our Camps 5 book.

Finally I got my way ( I think he too had, had enough just quietly) so 41 mile Bore was our new home for the night 70 km east of the three ways (near Tenant Creek) And once I got out of the Patrol I understood his earlier point…..Red powdery dust…ha ha now we were in the outback !!!

When you pull over in a place like this after a long day on the road with your kids you really have an overwhelming appreciation for the luxuries of your van…I can remember when we were looking for our van and we were tossing up to Shower/Toilet or not to Shower/Toilet we would change our mind about a dozen times to-ing and fro-ing about the need and the added cost (it costs around an extra 10k to the vans price we found) BUT let me tell you from 1^st hand experience….NOTHING beats sitting back after a journey like this one with a cold beer and watching all the other people mixing up hot water ect to use in their make shift outside portable shower or coming out of the pit toilets gagging, then knowing that you have just turned on your gas hot water service and in 5min once you have finished your beer or glass of Chardy you can have a lovely hot shower in the comfort of your own van……Ahhhh……YES…. I know… I know …I am a bit of a princess…and yes….. if we were just on the road for a couple of months I could survive without it but we are on the road for 12months and as they say….. Happy wife happy life  !!!

The next morning though Tennant Creek we drove and then stopped just south of the town to get refueled and were blown away by the size of this van …..Boy we thought ours was big….this little baby was an impressive 34ft.

Stopping at an old Telegraph station to have a quick look we marvelled at the amazing determination of our pioneers and then proceeded to our next stop and our new home for that evening… “The Devils Marbles” ……Now isn’t it amazing when you get those pre-conceived ideas in your head about places…I don’t know why… But I had envisaged 6 to 8 large round rocks in the middle of no-where …thought we’d get out take a couple of happy snaps, set up the van…. go to bed and that would be that…Well holy crap!!!! This place is awesome…Jacks excitement level went through the roof…”Wow Mum, look at that one…oh dad that one…it looks like it’s gunna fall down” and so on and so forth.

We had arrived at about 1.30pm and it was quite hot…we had a sandwich and I went about some home schooling with Jack. Anthony went about filling out the camping fee envelope and adding the required family rate of $7.50 and then went for a little exploration.

That afternoon once things had cooled off we had our dinner early and we went exploring on our bikes (yes I know !!! me on a bike ???) Now I have to admit I had an absolutely brilliant afternoon/Early Evening…we stopped to read the information board which explained how these amazing spheres were formed…and the basic aboriginal story (the full story is only told to a handful of elders) this told of the Devils marbles as the fossilized eggs of the Rainbow serpent. For those interested I`ve I found a good site that explains the formations ect … you can find out more here.

The next morning we hopped up and went exploring again…this time climbing to the top of one to get a birds eye view…it was truly spectacular.

We bid the devils marbles a fond farewell and made our way further down the road to a place called Wycliffe Wells which had me intrigued…

their claim to fame is that they have a huge amount of U.F.O sightings here…we stopped at the Wycliffe wells UFO museum (a.ka the local servo/big 4 office/bar) and had a wander around inside I have always had a fascination with all things “unexplainable” and so I had a ball reading all the newspaper clippings ect about reported sightings….this was one of those quaint little quirky places that I just love !!!! I think we might plan to stay here on our next journey through here  (after we leave Darwin).

Back in the patrol and further up the road Anthony spotted a cyclist ….the kids were fast asleep in the back seat and we decided to pull over to give this poor bugger a cold drink and a biscuit or two…..He was a very polite Korean fellow in his early twenties …very grateful for the cold water refill and can of lemonade for later he took photo’s of us with him before getting back on his bike and continuing his hard slog around Oz on his push bike….Man that’s keen…. I said as we got back in our vehicle ….I knew that Anthony was in awe and at the same time wishing it was him out there…. The dangers these guys face are enormous…..the road trains out here would have you as a hood ornament in a heart beat and wouldn’t even know it……It never ceases to amaze me the things some people find enjoyable…A.C reckons it would be fantastic….I reckon it’s a suicide mission. So we begged to differ over that one and pushed on to a small place called Ti Tree…

…..Ti Trees claim to fame is that it has Australia’s most central pub…attached to the roadhouse (as you do)……well you know what that means ….so with kids still asleep in the car I told Anthony that regardless of whether he felt like it he had to go in and have a beer….(See I am good to him !!!)…he has a little mission of completing a kind of Aussie far flung Pub Crawl…he has been to the most Northern …on Thursday Island…Now this is the most central….we now just have to find the most Eastern (no doubt Byron will have that one) and the most Western and the most Southern !!! Well you know it’s a hard job but someone has to do it !!! If you know where they are PLEASE use the comment box at the bottom and let us know……..This bar in Ti Tree was amazing…it is made from recycled sleepers from the Ghan railway line and the footrest an old ghan track…very impressive !!!And as all outback characters the owner has had his last resting place turned into the “sprit” cabinet until he needs it …..Yep his coffin has also been made from the recycled ghan sleepers and it too was very nice (as far as coffins go).

Well I`ll leave it there for now …catch up with us next time when we finally arrive in Alice !!!

For those of you interested in the Home Schooling page stay tuned I`m currently working on some new editions….I`ll keep you posted.