13. The one with stars, marbles, and dust

Current weather: 38/17°C, sunny
Total distance travelled: 7539km (+1075km)

Perhaps the NT has different rules for graziers, but the landscape change was immediately apparent when crossing over from QLD. Shrubs and trees had suddenly been cleared past the horizon with cattle left to bake in the blazing hot sun with only short, patchy dry grass to sustain them. To my ignorant eyes, our country's love affair with beef appears to exceed our land's capability to support it.

While talking about unsustainable things, our car endured a strong headwind the entire journey, which had the fuel gauge moving quicker than usual. We eventually rolled into the Barkley Roadhouse to refuel, then proceeded to park our van under a tree and jump straight in the pool to escape the 37°C heat. Thankfully once the sun goes down, the temperature drops quickly, so we were feeling suitably refreshed when we packed up and left in the morning.

We turned left at Three Ways

towards Karlu Karlu (The Devil's Marbles). Despite arriving in the early afternoon (late by grey nomad standards) we were relieved to find an available camping spot to park for the night. With the mercury again sitting at 37°C, all of the exploring was delayed until just before sunset to avoid the scorching heat.

The scattered and often precariously- positioned "marbles" are stunning during the sunset as they turn from orange to red. Then once night sets in, the stars above steal the limelight. I'd never previously seen the attraction of the "red centre" until now. Remote, peaceful, beautiful, but also harsh and unforgiving. We were thankful to have made the detour to get here.

In the morning we used a bike ride and a short walk to explore more of the area, before packing up and backtracking north towards Tennant Creek. It was Picnic Day in NT, so most of the shops & attractions in town were closed. Instead, we filled up with fuel, water and food at the BP/IGA complex before taking a mine tour at Battery Hill. We were amazed to hear the amount of gold that is yet to be extracted from the area, and hear mining stories from someone who's probably spent more time below ground than above it.

We briefly stopped at the old telegraph station, although we found it closed, so moved further north, out of town to find a spot for the night. The Attack Creek rest area provided that. It was 37°C again when we arrived, so we huddled in the shadow of the caravan and got entirely filthy in the red dust! When the relief of evening brought cooler temperatures, it also brought masses of bugs - attracted to the light we'd been silly enough to leave on. Switching it off to reveal the amazing stars above was a much better idea.

We woke up at (what we thought was) a reasonable time, only to find the other travellers in the rest area long gone. We soon joined them on the road with a strong wind blowing, which at various times throughout the day was either a lovely tailwind, or a challenging crosswind! Only occasional dilapidated small towns are dotted along

this length of the Stuart Hwy, perfectly illustrated as a tumbleweed rolled across our path as we rolled through Pamayu. Most travellers have one stop in common though, the historic Daly Waters pub. Famous for having everything from ladies underwear to hats hanging up on the ceiling, to a resident pet saltwater croc ("Kevin") across the road, it certainly draws a crowd.

Although illegal, the only other source of entertainment in these parts appears to be dressing ant hills in fancy dress costumes. Some hilarious examples included a snorkeller and a snowman.

We then proceeded further north to Mataranka Homestead, which had space for us in its overflow area out back. We were only too happy to pay an extra $10 for a powered site, for the opportunity to run our air conditioning - the mercury was sitting at 38°C when we arrived! A short dip in the thermal springs was in order before they were overrun by a year 9 camp group. We took this as our cue to leave and enjoy dinner and marshmallows around a campfire.