Dunmarra

Another 450km heading north all day. Yesterday was warm but we have increased into the early 30's today. The drive was much the same - long straights into the sun, lots of caravans and roadtrains. We stopped at Tennant Creek for fuel and coffee then lunch at Renner Springs roadhouse. Julie drove for another few hours. The Stuart highway is good quality and wide enough for the roadtrains. We are now on new roads after we passed through three-way corner which is the turnoff to Queensland. Up until then we have been backtracking. The shrubs on the roadside have been steadily getting taller as we head north away from the desert centre to the more tropical areas. We are wondering when the bushflies are replaced by mosquitoes......or is there an area we have to suffer both insects?

We stopped off at a rest area where the Adelaide to Darwin telegraph cable was finally joined in 1872. The guy doing it was pulling the two wires together to join and holding onto both of them at the same time. Needless to say he got quite a large electric shock as there was a lot of kilometres of wire being joined together. This feat of installing 3178km of open wire in 1872 was pretty amazing. 36000 poles through fairly rugged countryside.

We reached Dunmarra roadhouse around 3.15pm and got an unpowered site. This means we take our pick of the paddock out the back. We are expecting the temperature to drop after sunset and as we are without mains power our aircon won't be working.
Dinner at the roadhouse and managed to buy a couple of their famous vanilla slices to take back to the van for supper. They didn’t disappoint. Managed to share one together with a backup for sometime tomorrow. Thanks to Annette and Shane from Nhulunbuy for the recommendation!Read more