NOW: Davenport Range, Devils Marbles, Tennant Creek.
Unseasonal rain north of Alice Springs made the Binns Track impassable so we had a turn on the tar of the Stuart Highway. Our lunch stop was at the restored Barrow Creek Telegraph Station, then on through Wycliffe Well and Wauchope to the Devils Marbles.
The volcanic tors of the Devils Marbles rise out of the plains balancing on top of each other. We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn here so it’s officially tropical and 33 degrees. We had morning tea at Ryans Well which had been hand dug down 24 metres!
18 kilometres north of the Devils Marbles we left the Stuart Highway to rejoin Binns Track to visit Davenport Ranges National Park. Bonney Creek crosses the road many times and 17 kilometres past Kurundi Homestead we drove down to Whistle Duck Creek. The Irrmweng Rockhole is adjacent to the day use area but the camping area was fairly overgrown and a long way from the water.
The Davenport Range is the best watered range in Central Australia and both tropical and desert plants grow here. We saw both native hibiscus and broad leaf wattle flowering here. A million corellas live here as well as feral donkeys whose hee-haws echo off the hills at night.
We set up camp at the best cafe in the Davenport Ranges with our camp chairs under the trees on the banks of Old Police Station Waterhole and roast lamb dinner in the campoven. The police station was built during the goldrush and the ruins are on the opposite bank where the Frew River Station was built in the 1890’s.
This was a really pleasant camp and our yabbie trap caught 35 whopper yabbies. We had so many we threw the small ones back and had two dinners on yabbies! You can’t beat yabbies in white wine at the best restaurant in the Davenport Ranges.
The Hatches Creek Mine is further down the track. It seemed abandoned but a new fence suggested it may reopen again. From here we headed on into Tennant Creek which was also on the telegraph line and started as a just a telegraph station.
NEXT: Buchanan Highway and the Murranji Track to the Western Australia Border
See you on the emu track
Cheryl and David
