Wycliffe Well to Daly Waters

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WARNING! This is part 2 of a blog you should read the previous blog before this one to fully understand. Go on don't spoil it.



Wow it was AMAZING! Spacecraft of every conceivable size and shape flittering across the sky with lights so bright they were almost impossible to look at, it was like watching a collection of the best Sci Fi movies ever made. I guess it was no surprise that the most common shape was in fact the traditional disc/saucer and I felt that they were actually putting on a “show” for all of us who were watching. These objects made noises like I have never heard in my life and suddenly a huge orange glow beamed out from behind the nearby ablution block, sure I was a little tentative but never in a million years was I going to miss this opportunity to get a close up look of ………. well, I wasn’t exactly sure. I slowly and carefully made my way towards the bright pulsing light, my camera had been working overtime but these pictures I hoped were going to prove beyond any doubt Aliens do exist. With all the excitement and believing that my wishes were about to come true I tripped in the darkness and dropped my camera, NO! I yelled but before it hit the ground………… I woke up!

Damn! No UFO’s for you tonight I thought to myself (in the voice of the soup Nazi from Seinfeld) when I decided on this occasion it was just not going to be, I had been looking for about 3 hours and it was 10:55. That meant it was bedtime. All was not lost however and the tally for the evening was as follows:-

6 meteorites

1 satellite

1 itchy leg

And in excess of 70 attempted ear invasions by mosquitoes not aliens, those suckers sure are persistent but they were to discover that I could be just as stubborn.

Sitting in the middle of Australia, in my recliner camp chair, stargazing on a warm and perfectly clear night – just awesome. Sometimes the simple things in life are often the best.

From Wycliffe changes to the landscape are now starting to occur, things like the Termite Mounds which are now everywhere and increasing in size, the roadside is lush with green grasses at times standing over 2 metres tall. Also the creeks are still holding water from the Wet Season despite it being a little drier than the norm. We passed through these parts in June last year and the contrast to what we are now seeing is incredible, back then it was brown and very dry and it was obvious that many fires had occurred in these regions. I do not know if they were part of controlled burning or otherwise.

You simply cannot miss the opportunity to stop at the Tennant Creek Telegraph Station and do some exploring, a free self guided tour map is available at the front gate.

Not far up the road from here is a place commonly referred to as Three Ways, the Barkly Highway heads off from the Stuart Hwy in a Easterly direction towards Queensland. This was a milestone for us as it meant we had completed a full lap of half of Australia, now stick with me here. We had passed this spot and took off along the Barkly in October last year, since then we have done QLD, NSW, VIC, SA, VIC, SA and the NT – see that wasn’t hard to follow.



We were listening to the radio that was being broadcast from Tennant Creek and they mentioned that a 3.6 earthquake had hit that area at around 8:45 the night before and were taking phone calls from anyone who had been aware of the event occurring. The presenter also mentioned that is was quiz time and my ears pricked up, I have enjoyed much success over the years with radio station giveaways and I wasn’t about to let a chance go begging. This particular quiz was a “where am I” you are given 3 clues and are invited to call in if you know the answer, well Liz phoned I gave her the answer and we collected the booty – A collection of Dr Who DVD’s, thank ya Mother for the rabbits!

We again stopped at a couple of monuments which is a far better and more interesting way to learn about our history than reading a book. After about 7 hours on the road we stopped for the night at Daly Waters Pub, we had stopped there last year on our way up and had an absolute cracker of a night. It was the end of June when we were there which is smack bang in the middle of the busy season and the place was chocker block. They had live music and resident comedian Chilli telling some great yarns and hanging it on everybody who did not live within about 5 k’s of the pub.

Things don’t start getting busy until at least Easter in these parts but I was hoping we would get more of the same unfortunately that was not to be the case. The Pub is not easy to describe and to say it is unique is a massive understatement, it is an attraction that must be experienced by everyone at least once in their life. I would recommend you do it in winter. Having said that we had a magnificent night, I had enjoyed the delights of a nice cold schooner of Pure Blond whilst having a bit of a chin wag in the pub when I thought I would return back to the van.

Well 2 young blokes who’d pulled in not long after us in a converted school bus were having a beer and I invited myself over. Now they had named and had sign written on the bus “The SLUG”, in real estate jargon that means Single Lock Up Garage to them it may have had other connotations I don’t know. Turns out they were from Western Australia and 23 years old, Ben was a refrigeration mechanic and Liam was a plumber. They had been on the road for about 6 months holidaying and working and had been playing footy real footy the AFL variety in the NT football league. They were on their way to Port Douglas in QLD as they had been invited there to again play footy and Liam was very keen to catch some waves further down the East Coast. And even more importantly they both played guitar – excuse the pun but….. that was music to my ears. I pulled out my Djembe, harmonicas, tambourine and shakers and we jammed until 11. It was a top night thanks boys.



Take care travel safe and Remember it’s nice to be important but it’s important to be nice.

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