Day 39 - Banka Banka to Aileron
Happy Territory Day! Apparently today is a special day for the Northern
Territory, but it would seem that it being known as "Cracker Day" is
more important. Today is the only day you can buy fireworks, between 9am and
9pm and you are allowed to set them off between 6pm and 11pm. People spend
thousands of dollars on their fireworks on this day. We didn't.
Today was a big day on the road, the most kilometres we have done in one
day on this trip. But it was easy driving, down a very straight road. Last
night was our first really cold night, and I'm glad we added the second doona.
We were toasty warm all night but it was pretty cool this morning so we
indulged - I got up to put the gas hot water service on (no power last night)
and the kettle and when the latter boiled, we had tea and coffee in bed. Very
decadent.
We were on the road by 8:30am and headed down the Stuart Highway for 100km
to Tennant Creek. Although the countryside is pretty flat and boring, there were unusual flat topped hills as we came into Tennant Creek. They looked like crowns, with escarpments at the top, ringing the very flat tops. We drove through a gap in these to enter the town. We topped up our fuel there but didn't stop for anything
else. I wouldn't describe it as a pretty town. So we continued down the road to
the Devil's Marbles. Ironically, they actually do look like marbles, and are
the only big rocks in the landscape, so it is quite special that they are all
in this one place, as 2km up the road, they stop. Good chance to stretch the
legs and it was worth the walk.
On the road again........and we stopped for lunch at a rest area down the road. The wind had been howling all day and it didn't make driving fun. It obviously also made it pretty cold. Someone has well and truly turned off the weather tap and we left our warm weather back in Mataranka. Long pants and jumpers are out now.
By about 3pm we arrived at Aileron Roadhouse, which had been reccomended to
me for the massive Aboriginal statues that are here. As we drove in, there was
a ten metre tall loubra and her child near the entrance, and we could see a tall
man with a spear on top of the hill behind the roadhouse. We set up and
discovered an ample supply of firewood which decided dinner - stew cooked in
the campoven. We also needed it for heat.
As dinner cooked, Paul, Kobi and I walked up the hill to see more
closely the 10m high man. Upon return, we sat down to a hearty stew followed by
heated birthday cake served with ice cream. A night seated around the fire
followed, and just as we thought the hype of Territory Day hadn't made it here in Aileron, the fireworks went off just after 9pm. It was actually a pretty good show - a great way to finish up the night.
posted by Tracey @ 8:59 pm
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