Tennant Creek to Darwin

It's February on the Timor Sea, what's not to like?

Summary: (Attempted) Video dump, Whinemaker notes, nice marbles, fast track, Never Never has a Capital, we've arrived in Darwin

NOTE: I am going to publish this post, then keep editing it to add videos. Come back for more videos, if you like. After trying all night to upload one video, this may just not work... we'll see. Update: I have been trying for hours to load a 2 second video. It was 80% loaded in fifteen minutes, then got stuck. It is safe to say I do not expect any videos on this blog. Sorry. my videos of the Devils Marbles were better than those two pictures, but now I know.

Our day started with a bit of a hiccup. When I checked in last night, I asked if they had internet and if I could receive a call in my room at 6am. The answers I received on both were “yes” and the correct answers on both counts were in fact “no”. I’ll spare you the details because this sort of thing makes for boring reading. In short, by all accounts this Bluestone Lodge is supposed to be the best motel in Tennant Creek. From what I saw of Tennant Creek that may well be the case, but unless things go terribly wrong I won’t be checking out the competition any time soon. Finally, I have proof that Australians are not genetically engineered to be cheerful, helpful, and competent in all things.

Alex and I started our northward trek today by going 100km south (then returning right back up the same road). Tennant Creek is near ("near" in the Australian sense) a very unusual rock formation called the Devils Marbles. These are large boulders that almost look like they were delicately placed on little rocks in precarious positions. They make for good photos when one person can pose for photos and one can shoot the photos. Alex can do many things, but hold a pose or operate a camera in a way that others would want to see is not among those skills yet. I let the pictures do the talking and since I am the cameraman, let me just say that the pictures don’t tell the story very well. There are literally over a thousands boulders, many arranged in impossible positions. Way cool, worth the visit, but as you can see from Alex on one of the videos(edit: if you could see the video...), the Australian National Bird (the Fly) was out in full force and we were the only people to annoy.

Because we are in the wet season, this desert did not look like the images I had of the red center. (Actually these pictures of the Devils Marbles do, but everything around it is green) The desert is in full bloom here in the middle of the wet season. Still, our drive north from the Devils Marbles went from sparse trees and desert scrub to more of a savannah mix to dense trees to jungle to jungle and palm trees. The deserts in Western Australia and South Australia may give us those iconic Aussie scenes. For fear of boring you with landscape shots I did not take any pictures (instead I just narrated for a paragraph), but Darwin is great and you’ll get a few photos from here.

Driving in the middle of nowhere helps me understand half of the mystique around the Road Warrior in Australia. It is impossible not to be obsessed with gasoline. My atlas actually shows where every gas station is out here. You know that if you run out of gas it could be 100 km away and 100 degrees - which tends to focus the mind. Every time I gas up I know where I expect to stop next and how far I am from the next gas station. The half of the Road Warrior that makes no sense is the aggression. The drivers out here are courteous and give way more reliably than most anywhere I've been. When you have not seen an oncoming car for an hour and then you see one, you feel obliged to wave.

On the way up, we found yet another mystifying town slogan: “Mataranka - Capital of the Never Never”. Fortunately, it was a good time to stop and get gas because…well…it just leaves so many questions out there. The guy at the gas station/ restaurant/ convenience store said it had something to do with the local Aboriginal people. The people in that region did not belong to a tribe. They were all cast off from different tribes and did not have a clear identity. Alternatively it has something to do with the Aboriginal concept of DreamTime. In short, the townsfolk are not really sure, but it has something to do with the locals who predate the British.

So we got here to Darwin and the hotel is located right on the Timor Sea (not that you should go in, but it is beautiful). I am closer to East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia and maybe Singapore than any major city in Australia, but have no plans to hop over. First impression of Darwin is great, but I am in the right part of town. Storms have been rolling through and Friday should be another hot day, but with sea breezes and maybe a lightning show.

Tomorrow: Nothing (for once), just hang out in Darwin