"A Safari is not a destination, it is a journey through life ..." & "An exciting buffalo hunt"

Day Three.

Left Erldunda at a relative late 8:30 am but was refreshed. The plan was to make a BIG dent in the last two days driving needed. I needed to be within driving distance of Darwin airport, and preferably no more than a seven hour drive, the next day to make it in time to meet JB at the airport.

Drove through Alice Springs, but stopped to fill up and make a couple of phone calls.

Then off again.

The plan this day, was to drive from Erldunda to Daly Waters. 13 1/2 hours driving per google maps and 1,113 kms. When much later in Tennant Creek I telephoned the Daly Water pub to see when they closed and if they had a room. No luck, full. Then the Daly Water Highway Inn. They did have a cabin and were open to 11 pm.

In the distance lies ... more road ...

From somewhere North of Alice Springs, only 886 kilometres to the next turn ... but a turn only off the highway to the target for the night, the Daly Waters Highway Inn.

A common sight on the NT roads, a "road train".

The first time I drove the NT's Stuart Highway, the road was little more than one lane wide. One had to get right OFF the road onto the gravel verge when a road train came from the opposite direction. And when overtaking them, the same thing, pass using the gravel verge. The "fun" old times.

Believe it or not, vineyards in Central Australia, several hundred kilometres North of Alice Springs. These have been there since the 1980's and once produced table wines, now most probably producing table grapes.

Giant Blackfellas guard the roadside at Aileron.

Crazy people try to ride by bicycle the journey, some even walking pulling or pushing handcarts ...

Crossing the Tropic of Capricorn.

A cluster of caravans, they like to shelter clustered together like lemmings for security ...

Some of the lemmings are sexy girly tourists.

Lunch at Ti Tree was an extended process. Had planned to sit down and eat, but it took SO LONG ... the toilets were out of action, so I jumped in the Landcruiser to find a bush outside of town, came back, and managed to coincide with a tourist bus. They were already busy before the toilet break ... so ordered a take away steak sandwish and an hour later, it arrived and ate it while driving on ...

Mixed up my "towns", and thought it was the pub/roadstop at Wauchope. Thirty years ago had stopped there to meet up with a 'local' from home and it seemed nice. Ti Tree is a dive and will avoid it in future trips.

After Wauchope saw Devils Marbles and planned to stop there for a few minutes for photos on the way South.

Stopped off at Tennant Creek to see about dinner. As usual the town is a s-hole and decided Three Ways OUTside of town would be better.

Tennant Creek

Potje's large enough to cook a buffalo whole lie on the roadside of Tennant Creek.

Seriously tourism artifacts from the mining days.

Dinner at Three Ways. A nice T-bone steak.

One of the pleasures of these stops is the lovely tourist girles working at them. Australia allows youth to obtain visas for working holidays. Lots of pretty girls working on working holiday visas in the outback.

Had to make dinner a short break even though the pub there looked inviting, as if I was to make it to Daly Waters, lots of driving was still needed. Another 380 kms and four and half hours per google maps. But less actual driving. But at least a room would be there that night.

Lonely roads that evening, some trucks and a few cars but very few. For a while got a road train to drive behind, but he ended up giving me an indicator to pass so did.

Driving like this can get boring at times, but the audio books make it quite enjoyable.

Arrived at Daly Waters Highway Inn sometime like 10:30 pm.