Off to See the Wizard - Devils Marbles to Banka Banka Station.

I woke early at the Devils Marbles and this was the view out of the window beside my bed.  

Not a bad way to start the day.

We may not have seen all the marbles with the setting sun making them glow, but the morning light more than made up for it.

Continuing on our journey north, we were now starting to see lots of termite mounds.  Not very big, but lots of them.

Tennant Creek was the next town that we passed through.  

As we pulled in for fuel, I noticed a truck with three trailers carrying two prime movers and a smaller truck.  I just caught a very quick photo out of the window as we drove past.  Zooming in, I can read on the small truck “This is Kenworth’s first Australian designed and manufactured truck, built in Bayswater Victoria in March 1971”.  The towing truck and the prime movers being transported were all Kenworths. What’s the bet they are on their way to the Kenworth Dealer Hall of Fame at Alice Springs that we visited.

By the way, diesel was only $2.179 per litre.  The cheapest we have encountered since leaving home.

We popped up to the visitor information centre to see if there was anything in the area to visit.  It turns out that there was another of the Overland Telegraph Stations here, but we didn’t need to visit another.  There was also a gold rush here in the 1930s, with a museum and underground tour you could do.  We didn’t bother, as we have seen plenty of this type of museum previously.

There were however, some interesting old relics beside the driveway to the information centre.

This last once was rather intriguing.  It appeared to be a very early mobile air compressor.

Tenant Creek has a similar reputation to Wilcannia in New South Wales - drive through and don’t stop.  It was a public holiday when we passed through, so very quiet, but with lots of the locals just hanging around.  A rather sad place.  This mural added a bit of colour.

Further north, we came to the intersection where the road from Queensland meets the Stuart Highway, which we had been travelling on for a very long way.

Just north of there is the famous Three Ways Road House and Hotel.  We stopped there to eat our lunch and two trucks carrying army tanks drove in.  Not something you see every day.  We have actually seen quite a few military vehicles being driven or transported.

We have been listening to another Audio Book “The Good Turn” by Dervla McTiernan, the third and final in a series.  They have all been great listening.

Our destination for the day was Banka Banka Station, a cattle property geared up for lots of tourists to camp.

I liked the ‘Pets Welcome” sign.

Once we had set up it was actually hot for the first time and I finally got to wear a summer dress.  As there was not internet available, I was sitting outside doing some more of my stitchery, when the lady camped next door came over.  She is a patchworker and had also bought aboriginal fabric in Alice Springs.

In the late afternoon a fire is lit and damper cooked in camp ovens.  The ingredients are self raising flour and enough beer added to create a dough.  It was delicious with butter and “Cocky’s Joy” (golden syrup).

It was pleasant standing by the fire in the early evening.  The last evening that actually cooled down.

There seemed to be lots of families with young children camped here, despite not being in school holidays.  They were running around, riding their bikes and generally having a great time.  It was so nice to see and to hear all their laughing and chatting.

And, of course we had another beautiful sunset. This is really turning into an “Another Bloody Sunset” tour.

In the evening, I cut out the remaining hexies for the Blue Quilt and started to glue baste them, but I am 24 papers short.  Grrr!  I’ll see if I can get some in Darwin, otherwise I’ll stitch what I can and then move onto the other EPP shapes.

The highlight of the day was the lovely steak that Mick cooked to eat with a nice fresh salad.