The Tanami Road

The Tanami Road is over 1000 km long, mainly dirt, sometimes lovely, sometimes awful from Alice Springs in the south of The Northern Territory to Halls Creek in the north of Western Australia. We set off on Thursday morning from Alice Springs.

 I believe the road has improved immensely in recent years, and indeed the first 200 kilometers are sealed! So we cruised along the first section without trouble, stopping at this picturesque roadside rest area for our lunch.

Later that afternoon we pulled into Yuendemu, one of the few places to buy fuel and the last fuel stop for 590 km or so. Yuendemu is an indigenous community and Frank at the diesel bowser recommended the art centre in the town. 

last fuel for 590 km across the Tanami Track- time to fill up

After being blown away by some of the art we saw in Alice Springs, we decided to check it out. Except it seemed to be closed- the gates were chained shut. After milling around for awhile outside and about to get into the car to leave, Ashley struck up conversation with Rosie, an elderly toothless indigenous woman who assured us it was open and someone would come out and let us in. Eventually that indeed did happen, and when we went in we were surprised to find a bustling arts centre including a gallery with a massive collection of works. The gates were chased shut because there had been some fighting outside in the morning. 

We left Yuendemu and headed off to find somewhere to camp the night- we again took Frank’s recommendation and stayed at some ruins off the track which was a pleasant, if dusty, place to stay the night.

The next day was some more driving on the road….. the Tanami desert was nowhere near as desolate as we imagined, there was a wealth of vegetation and a plethora of bird life along the way. Some sections were a sea of termite mounds amongst the grass. At lunch time we were in the vicinity of a gold mine and used their mobile signal to call Tim’s mum for her 70^th birthday, an unexpected bonus.

That afternoon we pulled into an unofficial campsite listed on Wiki camps which was perfect- off the road, no mozzies, flat ground, no dust!!!

The following day was Saturday and the fuel supplies were getting low….. jerry cans were emptied into the fuel tanks and we were on a mission to get to Billiluna before 12 when the shop there shut and there would be no fuel until Monday morning.

Arriving in Billiluna it seemed deserted. It was 10:38, and the shop was shut (shut at 10:30), no signs of life. Driving around town we did see this guy standing guard in a driveway.

There were instructions of what to do if the shop was shut- go to house 18 next to the clinic- but where on earth was the clinic? We dispatched men to find house 18 but when they finally found it there was no answer! What to do? We hadn’t any fuel to continue to anywhere, and Bililuna wasn’t anywhere we particularly wanted to hang out for 2 nights until the store opened again on Monday morning. Eventually someone pushed the “emergency” button at the clinic entrance, and the call was soon answered by Jenny, the town nurse, who helped us raise the store owners (why hadn’t we just honked our horn a lot?) and eventually we got some fuel. Sigh. It was a relief, even at $2.60 per litre!

And where to go now? We had thought we would head to Lake Gregory which is some 120km out of the way. The Bililuna folk suggested a place called Lake Stretch,15km down the Canning Stock Route where there is water, trees, birds, and swimming! The decision was pretty easy and soon we were set up and having a swim.

 In the last couple of days the weather had gone from bitterly cold in the morning and kind of warm during the days, to pleasant overnight and really quite hot during the day.

Lake Stretch was absolutely teeming with birdlife. We camped next to trees with nesting budgies and zebra finches, across from kite nests and a spoon bill roost. We also saw rainbow bee eaters, egrets of all types, herrons, terns, honey eaters, and many others we didn’t get to ID. There were some tense moments when a baby budgie fledged the nest only to crash into the water and then get swooped by a kite! After much advising of not to get involved and let nature take it’s course, I eventually allowed Hugo to intervene and lift the budgie from its tenuous clutch on the tree trunk it was clung to with it’s head barely out of the water, to a higher, safer location. He was chuffed with his life saving efforts.

 The next morning we had an early start thanks to the WA time difference (6am without an alarm and without trying!). After a leisurely start the plan was to go to Wolfe Creek national park and camp there, exploring the meteorite crater. We pulled up and had taken in the crater in about 20 minutes- an amazing sight but nothing more to occupy us than a 400m walk to the craters edge. 

The camp site was a bit barren and it was windy, so we decided to push on. The last section of the track to Halls Creek was possibly the worst- very rough with frequent big holes and to make matters worse lots of cattle on the road. By the time we were done we were ready to head to the nearest shower. Which happened to be the not very flashy Halls Creek caravan park. Mobile signal, power, washing machine, happy.

This weeks injuries: not much, just a million mozzie bites

Notable Wildlife Sightings: a dead donkey, our first Western Red Kangaroos, so many birds, and notably on the track, many flocks of budgies and many birds of prey.