WEDNESDAY 6 JUNE   OLD POLICE WATERHOLE TO TENNANT CREEK   240kms

Pack up times seemed to come round too quickly!

We returned to the Stuart Highway over the same route we had come in on.

Near Kurundi, passed the turn off to the Whistle Duck Creek camp area, 24 kms to the south. I’d have liked to go camp there for a couple of days, but the majority – 2 to 1 – was for pressing on north. So, it was on up the Highway, to Tennant Creek.

We booked into the Outback Caravan Park, for $26 a night.

This park seemed to have gotten quite “tired” since we were last here. A pity, because it had been a very pleasant place to stay as a base for exploring around Tennant Creek. There were notices up, offering free sites in return for work about the park. I was not sure they would get many takers, because we found that the town as a whole had also gone downhill greatly, so it might not be a great drawcard.

After set up, drove into the centre of town to have a look round. The place seemed dirty, hopeless, sad. Inebriated people were much in evidence, even in the early afternoon. There was now just the one supermarket, a combined pharmacy and newsagent – and four hotels! As well, there were several rather grotty looking take away food places. There were a number of closed shops and businesses.

It had been from the newsagent here that I used to get my weekly newspaper when we were at Pungalina, in 2005, along with supplies from the supermarket, flown in on the weekly mail plane.

As we drove around the town, saw that there was a lot of quite damaged  housing – some of it clearly recently built, too – and destroyed to the point of not being habitable. What a waste of resources! This was the sort of place that armchair based, bleeding hearts, who have never ventured far from the big cities, should visit and stay a time in, before making glib pronouncements about white oppression! Now to climb down from the soap box………

Fuelled up Truck – $1.39 cpl.

It was a luxury to have a shower again – and to wash my hair!

Park definitely getting tatty – no mops in the amenities, no hand washing soap at all, washing machines not working well.

Son had left a message on my phone to call him, which we received when we came back into phone range. So I called him at night. His news was a real bomb shell. He and wife had split up. He was rather vague about why this had happened, but implied it was her wish. They had just sold their house, too.

I certainly didn’t see that one coming! My immediate concern was for the children, aged 1 and 6. Nothing I could do about it, but that didn’t make it any easier to deal with. I was definitely back to real life with a thud, now.

After that news, I really needed a stiff drink, but there was nowhere to get same in town – everything closed at 8pm.