Monday 19th July - Tanami Road (Charley Creek) to Alice Springs

It’s been a while since we’ve been kept awake by the tent’s flysheet flapping about, but the wind picked up early this morning heralding a weather front and also the end to our sleep.  Up before dawn, cold and sleep deprived, neither of us was too happy, but at least we saw the sun rise before it disappeared for most of the day behind a bank of cloud moving in from the east.

The end of the Tanami was marked by 100km of tarmac, although our illusions of being “out there” had already been dashed when we passed a coach, a caravan and a small hatchback all going the opposite direction.  No doubt in a few years time it will be bitumen all the way.  We completed the 1100km in 16 hours, mostly on gravel, at an average speed of 69kph.  The only real casualty are our tyres which have taken a bit of a pounding due to first cutting across country from Mount Augustus to Karijini and onto Broome, then travelling the Gibb River Road, and now from cruising down the Tanami.  The tread blocks are losing large chunks, but hopefully they’ll last us the Australia leg.

Alice Springs was like a ghost town when we arrived about mid-morning, and we had to check that it wasn’t a bank holiday or something.  Maybe it’s quiet as the school holidays have just finished, or that we’ve got used to it being peak season further north.  Either that or the fact that the sun wasn’t shining and it was rather cold, so everyone was indoors around the fire to keep warm.

Todd Street is full of Aboriginal art galleries and we spent a couple of hours wandering around and playing the “Which pictures I would buy if I was rich” game, with several of the larger canvases priced at AU$8000 and higher.  There were some beautiful pieces, but we’re still on the lookout for that three panel spot set that really catches our eye (and that we can afford).

The Anzac Hill war memorial. SPOT