Day 84 Mataranka to Alice Springs ( Free camps )

 We took 3 days to travel to Alice Springs so here are the details of our free camps along the way.

Day 1 – Mataranka to Newcastle Waters South Free camp

Today we had a complete change in the weather. As we left Mataranka it started to shower and that continued for most of the day. The major stop today was for an early lunch at the iconic Daly waters Pub. We got there about 11am and it was already getting busy with lots of vans and tour buses rolling in. The other part of Daly Waters that is so interesting particularly if you are a motoring enthusiast or even if you’re not, you must drop in and have a look at Tim’s Junkyard directly across the road from the pub. There are priceless motorbikes and cars in pristine condition in there. Costs $3 each – do it !!!

So the pub is full of stuff – hats, underwear, caps, shoes , business cards, few stuffed buffalo heads, antique piano or all  sorts of other quirky things. We ordered our Barra burger and wrap and just watched the fun and the amount of beer being drunk at 11.30 in the morning. You can stay there but we decided to push on. We found this free camp site just south of the “historic town” of Newcastle Waters. It seems to be mostly an aboriginal community with a couple of old buildings – Jones Store and Chong “s house . There were some very old steam engines up in the paddock that Russ was impressed with. By this time . the rain was starting to get heavier so we pulled into our camp site , jumped into the van and stayed there as the temperature plummeted from 32 degrees at the Springs to a max of 15 with a howling wind. Jumpers, track pants and the heater on. It rained for most of the night – a bit unusual.

Too cold outside with the train 

Day 2 – Barrow Creek WW2 camp

Left Newcastle waters quite early as the rain had  not stopped and we were a little concerned about getting out as it was starting to pool water around us but no worries. Continued to head south towards Tennant Creek and the Three Ways so named as it is the junction of North south Stuart Highway and the east bound Carpentaria . John Flynn’s Memorial is here so that and a a bacon and egg sandwich at the roadhouse was all the stop we needed. Up until that point , we had continued to see so many caravans but most turned east or headed north at that intersection. Tennant Creek is not far down the road and the main street has lots of deserted shops like no one really wants to be there. A lot of people just pass through on their way to somewhere else. We did stop at the Telegraph station just outside of town but like so many things , it was also closed 

The best stop of the day was the Devil’s Marbles or Karlu Karlu. It is a series of huge boulders that sit in clumps and are gradually being worn away by the weather. Again it has cultural significance to the local aboriginals but you can camp there if you like. Very interesting to walk around. The last visit of the day was to the UFO centre at Wycliffe Well. I think it was a bit of an exaggeration as all we could find was some fake UFO characters and paintings on the wall at the service station.

Our stop for the night was an old staging camp near Barrow Creek. It was set up to resupply troops moving north during WW2 . All the buildings are long gone but the cement foundations are still there and the mess tent slab fitted our car and caravan perfectly . There is a small information board that provides the lay out so you can work out the infrastructure that is still there. A great stop with loads of fire wood around. Yes we finally managed to have another fire and disappointingly we have had to move into long pants and jackets as we move further south. Better night so we could sit out and watch another great sunset.

Day 3

Left Barrow Creek camp site and just down the road was another telegraph station. This one was open so we went for a wander around. Beautiful old stone buildings with what looked like rifle holes in the walls. Dangerous times in the 1800’s.

Well at the back of the station

Another spot was Ryan's Well Historical Reserve - dug in 1889 the shaft was sunk to 24 metres and fitted with 2 x 45 litre buckets 

Stopped in at Aileron to check these massive aboriginal statues. 

Man is about 8m tall

She is about 6m tall

Our final free camp before arriving in Alice Springs was called Hemmi’s rest . Just a series of open tracks off the highway that opened out into a good camping area and another fire. It was pretty windy so that temperature is still dropping. Tomorrow we got to Alice and my cousin’s place.