Into the Tropics

It had been raining for the last 3 days, temperatures weren’t all that comfortable either plus the roof top tent was getting that moist smell inside. It was time for change, time for the sun and hot temperatures. We now head NORTH. Tim and Nat had their own little plan going to Ayres Rock and Kings Canyon but we hoped to catch up again further up the track. Stopping not far up the road at the Tropic of Capricorn there was almost an invisible line across the sky that divided the cold and wet of Alice Springs and the desert hot temperature of the north. After days in jumpers and raincoats getting back into shorts, t-shirts and more importantly thongs (with a beer) felt like heaven.

Travelling along the 87 highway it’s amazing how many caravaners and tourists are on the road. We found out the hard way when we pulled into a free rest area and found limited spaces for our 1 space vehicles. There were at least 40 vehicles ranging from wicked vans to oversized buses all scrambling for a space. We managed to slip in somewhere but now we’ve learnt to be off the road by lunch time instead of late in the arvo if we want a site.

Next day we headed for Devils Marbles but on the way we noticed a little town just south called Wycliffe Well known as the UFO capital of Australia. Expecting little we rocked up and...received little. There was a pretty cool pub with UFO pictures and newspaper articles of apparent sightings but other than that, I don’t think it’s anything like Salt Lake City and the American fanatics. It was more of an ‘I’ve been there’ sorta thing.

Devils Marbles was next along the road; pretty much unavoidable in dead flat country. The boulders are the remains from a 1700 million year volcano and through all the years of erosion these balls end up laying precariously balanced on top of each other. These boulders make for interesting climbing too. Camping was allowed at the Marbles but free to us as usual. We’re getting better; we even saw a ranger come in and take the envelopes...didn’t even check us. Hehe. Another $6.60 saved.

Heading even more north Tennant Creek was the next stop mainly for fuel. Our budget of $500 a week becomes very stretches in these long distances and expensive fill ups. We complained about 5c rises in Brisbane but out here our mentality changed. It becomes acceptable to pay $1.80 out in the sticks and about $1.60 on the highway. We can’t change the price so we acknowledge the plain and simple fact that we can’t go anywhere without it.