Thursday 31st May 2012 - Alice Springs to Tennant Creek

Into the Tropics

Monument on the Tropic of Capricorn NT

Big drive today - 511km from Alice to Tennant Creek.  First stop on the way was the monument on the Tropic of Capricorn.  Didn't feel very tropical at 8:00am!

The Stuart highway at this point follows the route of the old telegraph line and there are still original buildings at both Barrow Creek and Tennant Creek which were repeater stations on the line.  This is also the drovers route and in the past huge mobs of cattle were walked along this way up to the north.  They go on road trains these days.

Alien representation at Wycliffe Wells NT

We stopped for our picnic lunch and refuelling at Wycliffe Wells which is supposedly the alien sighting capital of Australia.  I can imagine that driving along these dead straight, flat and uninteresting roads at night may well cause hallucinations!  There is a big [man made] water hole here which was put in during WW2 so vegies could be grown in the desert for the enormous number of troops stationed in the area.


 

Devils Marbles NT

Devils Marbles NT

Next stop was the Devils Marbles which are an amazing area of granite boulders sitting on the desert plain.  They have been formed by fracturing and erosion though they look for all the world as if some big force has piled them up.


Arrived in Tennant Creek late in the afternoon and it is noticeably warmer here.  At last we get the jumpers off and hopefully the temperature at night will be warmer too.  We are looking forward to leaving the morning frosts behind.  The vegetation is noticeably different too.