Northern Territory where to eat and what to see
We arrive at Tennant Creek around 17pm, the local aboriginal site, NYUMUYU, is closing, no museum, which still seems to me to be a collection of fairly contemporary images.
Let's go to the Eldorado Motel, a pretty decent place, perhaps not living up to the evocative name.
The cars are parked in front of the rooms, the interior of which is quite spartan.
Tennant Creek it is green and full of chirping birds, it looks like a metropolis, after only two days in the desert even the mobile phone works for a while.
We rush towards PABLES, the "masculine" correspondent of devils marbles, smaller and more collected, however it is the sunset and we fully enjoy the colors of this land, the boulders have become on fire, there is no one, the only sound is that of the birds.
Almost hidden behind the boulders we meet a couple and their "traveling house", or rather a "kit" consisting of: mega jeep, mega tent, mega canoe.
America Coast to Coast
They are about to have dinner and will stay asleep in perfect solitude I try to imagine the place at night, illuminated by the full moon that is already silhouetted high in the sky.
We have dinner in a place "in" and a little unpleasant, recommended by the guide: they refuse to serve us the dessert because they are closing, it is only 20:15.
Early to bed, 560 km await us the next day.
Early in the morning it is still cold, we have breakfast at Eldorado, the cook tells us about his life, works 7 months a year where it happens, then turns theAustralia in the remaining 5.
The breakfast is excellent and plentiful, we leave at 8,00.
For lunch we stop in the Dunmarra Roadhouse, inside there are several (live) pythons closed in glass cases, Alessandro, my son, is delighted ..
Let's take chicken with potatoes then I'm intrigued by a pie that I would like to taste, convinced that it is an apple pie or similar and at the first forkful a dark liquid comes out, the pie turns out to be a beef pie, typical Australian dish that we hadn't tasted yet.
On the wall, our route is shown, we are only halfway there.
In the meantime, we have now entered the Top end, there is more vegetation but always made up of shrubs and bushes and termite mounds, now ocher colored like the ground, begin to be higher.
We meet more and more often burnt territories, given the amount of kilometers we are traveling "alone", I begin to think about the danger of fire: what to do if a fire breaks out?
Telephone out, we have never seen rangers or similar pass by.
Daily Waters information
In the early afternoon we deviate towards Daily Waters, one of the first outposts of European aviators, the first English woman who arrived alone in the early 900s is remembered here.
Here, where the vegetation is lush, almost tropical, we find the oldest pub in Northern Territory where by ancient we mean the fact that he was the first to obtain the alcohol sales license in 1938.
The place is full of banknotes, bras and underwear, much less genuine than Barrow Creek, however, a bit of crowd bathing is not bad, in a trip that has had very little tourism so far ..
Resuming the journey, we witness a sort of kangaroo massacre: on the side of the road, there are hundreds of them, while we have not yet seen one alive but it is a matter of a few hours, then we will begin to meet our Wallaby hopping.
Children are dying to get to Mataranka, where we will finally take a long-awaited bath in the thermal waters.
We arrive a couple of hours before sunset, the place is surrounded by greenery, the vegetation is dense and tropical, full of palm trees.
Unfortunately we lose some time because they have not kept our reservation, at first they give us a very small room in a prefabricated bungalow, only after they make us move to a "cabin”Wider, this is also a bugalow, a sort of caravan without wheels, which will turn out to be very cold at night.
We put on our costumes and run towards the water: we cross a sort of miniature tropical forest, we arrive at natural pools with small waterfalls that descend towards the river, the water is about 37 °, really pleasant and relaxing after all these kilometers, too bad the sun is setting.
Returning, we have the first close encounter with a Wallaby and her puppy, exciting.
In the campsite we find the traveling house of the two who slept in Peables.
In the evening we dine outdoors, under the starry sky and palm trees, there is live music, it is incredible to think of the silence and the bare vegetation that had kept us company so far.
At night and early in the morning we will find the Wallabies near our cabin.
The journey continues !!
