Moray Hill

ALICE SPRINGS TO MATARANKA 25/7 to 6/8/21
During our stay in Alice Springs we strolled along Todd Mall where we bought a painting from an Aboriginal woman who was displaying her artwork on a grassed area in the mall, and walked down to the dry, sandy bed of the Todd River nearby. The weather was becoming a lot warmer with temperatures in the low 30’s. We did a day trip to Hermannsburg where there is an old Lutheran mission which was established in 1877. The mission was a refuge for local Arranta Aboriginal people until the mid 1900’s. We looked through the old whitewashed buildings including the church, residences, dormitories and a tannery and also enjoyed morning tea of apple strudel and scones on a verandah of one of the old residences which had been coverted into tea rooms. On another day trip we drove to Ross River resort, stopping at Trephina Gorge on the way where we walked along the sandy creekbed and climbed the rocky steps to the rim of the gorge where we had views down into the base. After driving on we stopped at the Ross River Homestead hotel for lunch. On our return journey we stopped at Corroboree Rock which is a tall, narrow dolomite rock formation which stands alone in the landscape and was formed 800 million years ago when the area was a salt lake. We also stopped at Jessie Gap for a short walk along the sandy base before continuing to Alice Springs. Before leaving Alice Springs we took advantage of a local carwash where we were able to remove most of the outback dust from the car and van. After an enjoyable few days in Alice Springs we headed north and stopped briefly at Aileron where there is a 17 metre tall sculpture of an Aboriginal man on top of a hill at the rear of the roadhouse. Continuing, we stopped briefly at Barrow Creek roadhouse hotel where we looked inside the quirky old pub before driving on to Wycliffe Well where we camped beside the roadhouse in an area which was once a big outback resort complete with disused indoor pool, miniature train track, function room and restaurant. Most of the disused buildings were adorned with murals of aliens etc. as Wycliffe is claimed to be the UFO capital of Australia. Next day our drive took us north along more long, straight stretches of the Stuart Highway until we stopped to have a look around the Devils Marbles. Here we saw the enormous rounded granite boulders which appear to be stacked on top of one another over a huge area. Erosion over millions of years has caused this unique effect. We then drove on to Tennant Creek where we set up camp for a couple of days. During our stay we drove a short distance from town to see the old telegraph station historic stone buildings which were erected in the 1870’s when the telegraph line was built between Adelaide and Darwin. On another day we looked through the old Battery Hill Mining Centre and museum with information on the old gold mine. After leaving Tennant Creek we again headed north, passing through Elliot and camping at a roadside stop near Newcastle Waters where a lot of other caravans had also parked. The daytime temperature was steadily climbing into the mid-thirties. The next day we drove on to the Hi-Way Inn Roadhouse near Daly Waters. We were pleased to see our site was on green grass which we hadn’t seen for weeks and the rates were a very reasonable $28 per night with a free drink voucher for each of us in the pub! After unhitching our van we drove about 5km to the historic Daly Waters Pub for lunch and what a wacky place it was! It was very old and quite dilapidated but extremely well patronized. Every available wall was covered in signatures and the rafters were hung with caps, t-shirts and even bras and undies. After our lunch we drove back to our campsite at the Hi-Way Inn and enjoyed our complimentary drinks at the bar. The next day we drove on to Mataranka.Read more