NT Barkly Homestead, Tennant Creek, Wauchope

Left Cloncurry on 11 July, 2 hours after rising at 7:20.
I noticed pole bag sliding out from carrier - cap not attached in Cloncurry.  Put poles in car.
Drove 567 km to  Barkly Homestead past small hills, trees, termite mounds.  Gums in bud everywhere.  Shady site for our trailer. Had dinner there - $20 flathead for me, $28 barramundi for David, both good.  Beer was $5.90 a stubby.  Cheerful surroundings.

 

Turpentine bush Acacia chisholmii  Abundant along roadsides

Typical scene beside Sturt Highway

Next day, we drove 200 km to Wauchope, stopping to walk around Devil's Marbles.
The Devils Marbles are huge granite boulders scattered across a wide, shallow valley, 100 kilometres south of Tennant Creek.Formed by erosion over millions of years, the Devils Marbles are made of granite, which surfaces like an island in the desert. They vary in size, from 50 centimetres up to six metres across.

 I saw nothing in the billabong but a curious Yellow-throated Miner came by for a photo.

Stopped to look at some unusual  trees.

We visited the Tennant Creek Overland Telegraph Station which was connected to London in October 1872.  The cool meat store is in the centre foreground of this photo.

Office building on left; butcher 'shop' on right

 A school group was there also for a ranger-guided experience.

Science dealing with ants

Sturt's Desert Rose Gossypium sturtianum

Made a quick stop at Tennant Creek. Managed to get a $6 jacket for me at the Vinnies (my zipper stopped working) and a new cap for the pole carrier.  The hardware store manager drilled a hole in it for us so we could secure it properly.  We saw graffiti evidence of Aboriginal anti-police attitudes.  It seems most tourists go straight through en route to Alice Springs or Katherine.
Another 120 km and we were at Wauchope where we spent the night.  Had dinner at the hotel - fish & chips & beer, all good.