The first stop about a 100 kilometres along the road is the Devils Marbles (Karlu Karlu) and quite literally it is just along the road, turning off is just a formality so you can stop. Amazing place and very quiet, but the view of the grey nomad "free camping"caravan village just over behind the "marble field" really is a bit sad, would be nice if you couldn't see them freeloading to be honest.
The Marble field, you can just see the van village in the back of the pic unfortunately
The next town, ok well very very small settlement along the way, about 9 kilometres at that, is Wauchope which to me looked like it consisted of a pub that also sells petrol. I am thinking that it must be a bit bigger than that though as the pub still is in business so it must have a customer base somewhere. Anyway this is the best pic I have I think, actually the only one I took.
Next up along the way was a place I had read about somewhere and was interested to have a look at. Wycliffe Well, supposedly the most UFO'd place in Australia, though after visiting I don't know if the place is or not really. The visit has given me the impression that they have found a marketing tool and they are working it and working it well. Certainly if the UFO's are dropping off merchandise then they have been visited by a whole armada of them, the place has all kinds of things UFO to buy to commemorate your visit / fuel purchase / stay at the motel or van park. I think it really is an awesome effort on their part, quite amusing and interesting. The outside is something else again too.
I didn't then stop at all in the next couple of place as they were again just fuel stops and I had filled at Wycliffe Well, I have the alien badge to prove it too, so the next stop for me was Ti Tree, which again was not really anything but a road house which was doing a roaring trade in fuel and fast food, not sure how their caravan park attached was doing, but the free parking space across the road was packed! To be honest it wasn't pretty, so no pics and I left.
So now we get to another 194 kilometres and ta dah, Alice Springs (Mparntwe, pronounced m'barn-twa, in the local Arrernte language). I know it is a much bigger town, but wow it has so much more feeling of life than Tennant Creek, there are lots of people and there are lots of tourists, but it doesn't feel at all lifeless and intimidating. Mind you several people have told me not to go walking after dark and lots of the houses have 6 to 7 foot fences, some have razor wire (I kid you not!). I walked around all over the place between 4 and 630 and never once felt unsafe or threatened at all, so I have no idea if it is so bad after dark, but on the thought of being safe I don't think I am going to try walking around at night, specifically as I really quite liked the look and feel of the place this afternoon so I don't want to lose that impression because of something completely avoidable.
The Todd River looking north
River again, north
from the middle of the river looking south
Random street views
Todd Mall
again
and again
Oh and it is Territory day here, so there are fireworks going off everywhere, which is nicely covering all the yelling and screaming going on outside at the moment, don't know, not asking
Random pics from the Cultural precinct
Random pics from the Cultural precinct, I believe it is a caterpillar
Random pics from the Cultural precinct
Random pics from the Cultural precinct, there is a small aviation museum there as well, used to be the original aerodrome.
Tomorrow is a day in Alice Springs to have a look about and see what it's like...
Great pics Gav. Such vibrant colours.
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