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

More of the drive South.

Amazingly this was the second time it rained in Central Australia on a return journey. The last time sometimes the land was flooded to the side of the road and it took over a thousand kilometres of driving to get out of the wet and muddy zone.

This time I drove from Three Ways South passing Alice Springs until I was tired out and stopped at Stuart Wells. A pleasant station turned fuel stop and pub and hotel/camping grounds off the Highway between Alice Springs and the Border.

I didn't want to camp in the bush as the red desert soils had turned into a nice red claylike mud. If necessary will do, but sloppy swags and or tents at this stage I wanted to avoid.

Managed to secure one of the few last rooms, a "Bachelors Quarters" room, for the princly sum of $10 for the night. (or $30 as I wrote below, I forget which? Might have been 10 as I remember thinking it was dirt cheap) Similar to a clean shearers quarters type room with a wire and metal bed frame, mattress, sheets and blankets. Not like the usual shearers quarters one might stay in on a hunting property, with a foot of dust and bird droppings. This one was cleaned each day I presume. Bathroom and showers some 300 metres away through the buildings, huts and caravan park. It would do fine and better than covered in mud the next morning. A shower then a pleasant dinner and a couple of beers in the pub. Lots and lots of people there, it was a thriving place, the rain probably helping. Lovely girl from Bavaria behind the bar.

Desert landscapes from the drive South. I enjoy the deserts, gibber plains and savannah scenes of Central Australis. Here rain clouds threaten North of Alice Springs, with thunder storms and rain. I "sheltered" South of Alice Springs at Stuart Wells Roadhouse in the "bachelors" quarters, the only accomodation remaining, for the princely sum of $30, and enjoyed a lovely steak for dinner at the roadhouse pub.

At the border.

An invasion of Chinese tourists.

The emblem of the Northern Territory, a ....

The Sturt Desert Pea, the floral emblem of South Australia.

Last trip we camped here at the border, putting our swags on the gravel, as coincidentally it also rained heavy on the return journey of that trip. Over a thousand kilometres of rain storms or wet and muddy countryside. The gravel was better for a swag that night.

The Northern Territory was once the "Northern Territory" of South Australia and was part of South Australia. For financial reasons of administering such a large area, it was ceded to the Commonwealth. With hindsight a BAD decision! IMO.

Wild brumbies by the roadside.

Wedgetail eagles feeding on roadside carrion in Northern South Australia. The wedgetail eagle is a larger eagle than the bald eagle of North America and the fish eagles of elsewhere but brown feathered.

Emus by the road North of Port Augusta.

Northern South Australia desert vista, another mesa in the distance.

I often imagine what it would be like being on foot in this sort of country and how ling these sorts of distances would take. Where water might be found, if one was lucky hear a mesa or mountain range. Nowadays a cattle or sheep borehole and trough would be more likely. On foot something one would not want to try out in a desert like this.