Blogs from Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania

The mysterious Homestead to Tennant Creek Run ! After a hotel Breakfast, I gassed up and was on my way by 8:00 from Mt. Isa (pronounced Eye za ). The way out for the first 100 Miles was the road kill Kangaroo Highway. For the readers from WI imagine being on a road that every morning would have a doe to a fawn size white tail deer road kill every 2 miles or so for a hundred straight miles. Some are probably a day or so old but the crow cleanup crews are pretty efficient and there aren’t many left overs. My horn was buzzing every couple miles. Once the temp climbed above 80 there were less and less dinner guests joining me on the road - the topography was the open range format most of ... read more

Day 3 - Erldunda to Tennant creek What a day and we haven’t even arrived at Katherine yet. Today’s trip took us from Erldunda roadhouse to Tennant Creek. A distance of 700km. We started off with breakfast at the Erldunda roadhouse. Well we don’t realise what we have in Melbourne until you don’t get it. We went into the breakfast area and out of the five cereal boxes only two had cereal in them and there was very little else. Let’s just say basic is basic. By 7 am we were off onto Stuart highway. In the first few minutes a road train passed us going in the other direction and I was sprayed by rocks. Windscreen copped it and I now have a cracked screen. Looks like a new windscreen is on the list for ... read more

Geo: -19.6498, 134.19Had a good night at Connors Well and woke about 6.30 to a beautiful blue sky. We had brekky and set off for Devils Marbles. Stopped at Barrow Creek for a pit stop and looked around the pub. Reminds us of William Creek. So many mementos from travellers. Didn't take camera in, sorry. Back in the car to Whycliff Well for fuel as Barrow Creek was out of fuel. Only a quick stop there and then onto Devil's Marbles. Amazing place. Check out the pics. Anyway it was hot and windy and didn't look too inviting to stay so we decided to travel another 100km to Tennant Creek. Got in about 2pm.Just as well we came here as the darn car played up again. Some stupid sensor that Mazda charged us $600 for about ... read more

We had camped at Connors Well overnight (just north of Alice Springs) and decided to drive the 400 odd kms to Tennant Creek to visit Georgi's cousin, Fiona. This stretch of the Stuart Highway is ideally set up for fast long driving, with 1000 plus km days but we took our time stopping to look at the cairns, monuments etc that told the story of the early exploration of this part of the world. Of course, there is plenty of information about John McDouall Stuart who made six trips north from Adelaide, seeking the inland sea, minerals and farming land. His last trip, in 1862, was when he reached an area close to Darwin. His exploration of central and northern Australia made possible the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line, a vital communication link back in ... read more

After the long drive yesterday, we both needed a bit of a sleep-in. Then I borrowed an iron and finished the laundry. We really need to get one of our own as not every caravan park has them. We went into the town to see what electrical shops were there and if they stocked irons. A couple of general stores did and I got a light one for $30. Barry then spotted a computer store and went in to enquire about what might be wrong with my laptop, which had started to display images with too much red and something seems to be missing making waves and putting black in places it shouldn’t be. We’d had a look in Harvey Norman in Mt Isa but the sales assistant there just kept pushing and pushing me to ... read more