On the Road North

June 24th, 2006 at 12:00am

Back in another relocation van again and it feels good to be on the road. The road north from Alice Springs is extremely flat and straight, and in true Northern Territory style, it has no speed limit. There really isn’t much to see along the way except for red dirt and bushland but I kept myself entertained by listening to an audio book. There are a few places worth mentioning though – one is Barrow Creek, made famous from the Peter Falconio “backpacker” murder a few years back. If you didn’t know about the murder, you would have no idea that anything ever happened there, but if you do know then I think you can’t help but drive along and wonder where his body might be (it was never found).

Much more interesting heading north is Wycliffe Well, otherwise known as the UFO Capital of Australia. It’s just a roadhouse and caravan park, but the entire place is decorated in tribute to the many alleged UFO and alien sightings there. Even the toilets are labeled ‘Femaliens’ and ‘Maliens,’ but it definitely adds interest to what would otherwise be just another caravan park. It also happens to known for having the largest selections of beers of any roadhouse in Australia – about 160 I think – hmmm, could there be a scientific reason why the aliens would single out a place with an extraordinary selection of beers???? Things to think about while driving I guess.

I’m camping tonight at Banka Banka. For $6 you get a campsite, a nice hot shower, and a slideshow by firelight about the Banka Banka cattle station. It was interesting to see photos and hear stories about a different station after having just finished working on one myself. I couldn’t help but look around at all the people watching the show getting their 40-minutes insight into station life and think how fortunate I was to be able to live and work amongst it for 5 weeks. I definitely got the real deal.

On a side note, the temperature’s been rising as I head north as well, so I can well and truly say goodbye to -5C nights in Alice and hello to 30C days in Darwin very soon! Tomorrow I continue north. It’s about 1900 km to Darwin from here.

Entry Filed under: Alice Springs,Australia