.: Cath’s Blog:.

I didn’t have very much sleep last night…so I was exhausted. I collected Christine Hafner (German) from the Melaleuca and then I collected Tanja Hofer (Italian/German) up from the Stuart Highway, near where she was living.

We got some petrol and hit the road. The girls both seem very nice and I am sure we are all going to get one fine over the next few days. Even though it was early, it was really nice to see the sun come up over the highway and the bush…the colors were amazing.

Our first stop was at Edith Falls…I didn’t know what to expect at all, but I was thinking the waterfall would be something like the one in the film ‘Moonraker”…big, beautiful etc. Infact, it was a piddly little one and for me, quite disappointing, but whatever, it was only a detour off the Highway of 40kms.

We got back on the road, filled up the car with petrol a couple more times and we arrived in Daly Waters at about 2pm. I had read all about Daly Waters in Bill Bryson’s book and was quite excited about going there. We stopped off at first at the Stuart Tree…it was basically a tree stump with a plaque which said “THE EXPLORER JOHN MCDOUALL STUART IS PRESUMED TO HAVE CARVED THE INITIALS ‘S’ ON THE TREE ON 23RD MAY 1862 DURING HIS SUCCESSFUL JOURNEY FROM ADELAIDE TO DARWIN 1861-2”…we couldn’t see an ‘S’ anywhere. We continued onto the Pub, and I have to say, it was as fantastic as Bill Bryson described. Inside the pub walls were full of all sorts of rubbish…underwear, bras, Drivers Licenses, stickers and pictures of different people. After taking a look around the pub we got our food and made sandwiches outside on a step. A man came over with a broad northern accent who I found out was from Burnley. He had been in Australia for 40 years and was on vacation seeing Ayers Rock from Queensland…he discovered that we were sat on the step on a toilet…how delicious my sandwich was after I heard this.

Our last stop was Tennant Creek…which was such a dreadful place, I felt sorry for the poor bastards who live there. The best thing about the place was the room only cost us $14…bargain!! We stayed at the Safari Lodge YHA and this has to be by far the dirtiest YHA I have seen so far. It really could have used a good scrub…but I kept saying in my mind “What can you expect for $14!”

Tennant Creek really reminded me of Kununurra…but Kununurra was a much friendlier place. When we went to bed, we could hear the Abos screaming in the street…it was like a blast from the past!