Saturday 7th August - Stuart Highway - Bonney Well Rest Area to Newcastle Waters Rest Area

After over 900km on gravel roads and 4WD tracks itís nice to be back on bitumen, although the sign saying "Darwin 989km" we encountered shortly leaving Tennant Creek was a little depressing.  We'll break the journey by stopping at Katherine to visit its gorges and we'll also detour to Litchfield National Park, rated by some as better than Kakadu.  But first we have some kilometres to do so we topped up the rear tank in Tennant Creek, which was surprisingly 10 cents a litre cheaper than Alice Springs.  Anne's attempt to post some birthday cards was thwarted for a second time, the first by the bank holiday last week and now by the Australian Post Office's refusal to open at all on a Saturday.  Apologies to those of you who receive your cards late.

The old Tennant Creek Telegraph Station is 11km north of town and is one of only four still surviving.

The original temporary structure of wood and brush was built in 1872, but was replaced in subsequent years by the stone building that you see today.

As well as being one of eleven repeater stations along the Overland Telegraph Line between Port Augusta and Darwin, it also functioned as a welcome haven for travellers, a post office and a ration depot for Aboriginal people.  It's fairly desolate today, but the sense of isolation must have been immense when built, and no wonder the occupiers welcomed the companionship of passing travellers, be they explorers, scientists, prospectors, stockmen or early tourists. SPOT

Nearby are The Pebbles or, to call the place by its Aboriginal name, Kunjara.  Kunjara is a sacred women's dreaming site where they come for meetings, ceremony and dance, but to us they look like miniature Devil's Marbles.  It's a good spot for lunch, but not that impressive if you've already seen the full sized versions 100km to the south.  We finally found out what a corroborre is, a ceremonial meeting of Aborigines (for those who couldn't sleep at night for not knowing).

We're now 380km closer to Darwin and at a rather packed rest stop for the night.  It will be our sixth day without a shower tomorrow which isn't our longest stretch without such facilities, but on other occasions weíve had gorges and pools to jump into to freshen up.  Anne cannot express how much she is looking forward to showering when we reach Katherine and splash out on a real caravan park (something about her hair being weird and worrying that she might be starting to smell like one of her mumís sheep). SPOT