Our border crossing was quite uneventful in the end, a quick check by the friendly policeman stationed at the hot and dusty ‘state line’ and we were on our way west. The original destination was a free camp that John and Steph were familiar with but given the estimated maximum was 36C, Steph and I won out and we checked into Barkly Homestead, a veritable oasis in the desert with power to run our AC and a pool! Barkly Homestead is privately owned and as well as accommodation offerings it has petrol and a pub, what more could you need? All at a price of course, they are extremely isolated, generate their own power and receive no government assistance.
We cranked the aircon up as red dust swirled around us. The generator failed, we went to the pool which was tiny and full of sweaty humans, the generator came back on and then went off again and eventually more blustery, dusty wind delivered a cool change of sorts and we had dinner in relative comfort.
Another big advantage here was that we didn’t have to disconnect our ‘toads’ so were on the way again in the morning with a minimum of fuss, headed for the Devil’s Marbles, south of Tennant Creek.
We stopped in Tennant Creek for diesel where there were chaotic scenes at the petrol station, long queues, impatient people and frayed tempers. Tennant Creek has a pretty bad reputation at the moment, other grey nomads reporting rocks being thrown as they passed through and frequent theft and even assaults in the Caravan Park ๐
Luckily for us though we arrived at Devil’s Marbles early enough to secure two sites adjacent to one another in this amazing location and had time for a walk through the Marbles before positioning ourselves up on the plateau to view sunset.ย

The next morning we were on the road reasonably early in order to cover a decent distance into Alice Springs. John told us he would be showing us a bit of ‘culture’ today when we dropped in to Barrow Creek Hotel and he wasn’t wrong!

Even before we sampled the many quirky features of the pub though, another surprise – the first person I saw was an old work colleague from Gawler who had arrived the night before for a short term job. Jenny and I had a quick catch up covering the last five years before she showed us around the iconic pub.
Constructed by the Kilgariffs during 1930-1932, the Barrow Creek Hotel is of architectural and historical value. It remains as the earliest Hotel constructed along the north-south road between Alice Springs and Tennant Creek and retains many of its original and early features including the cellar, patterned cement blockwork, pressed tin ceilings, and most of the windows and doors.
If these walls could talk there would be many interesting tales to recount!
We stopped again for lunch at the Tropic of Capricorn and said farewell to our travelling companions as John and Steph were continuing on to SA the next day. It had been wonderful having their company for the last few days and they are a wealth of knowledge when it comes to motor homing which was very helpful for us newbies.
We had a couple of nights in Alice and marvelled at how much it has changed since we both use to visit several times a year for work. One of the new additions that caught our eye was the Alice Springs Brewery, situated very close to our CP and we ended up sampling some lovely gin and delicious buffalo wings for Russell’s birthday.
Leaving Alice Springs on Friday we were headed for Kings Canyon Resort ultimately but planned to free camp overnight to break up the journey and just after lunch we settled on Salt Creek campground about 50kms up the Luritja Road.
Surrounded by vibrant red sand and muted grey/green spinifex it was absolutely sublime. I’ve always thought that the ‘Red Centre” term is in part good marketing but here we were surrounded by it and there is no more apt description. Three other units stayed overnight but there was space for everyone and we enjoyed yet another beautiful sunset, a campfire (marshmallows as well) and then a beautiful sunrise the next day. This is indeed what motor homing is all about!
It was such a joy to hear nothing but birdcall, free camping at its best.
The next day we only had a little over an hour’s drive to reach Kings Canyon Resort but we stopped for a little drone action on the way and were amazed at how varied the landscape was as we drove northwards.
We checked in to the red dirt caravan park but were pleased to see a nice pool surrounded by lawn and modern amenities. Diesel at the servo was $2.05 c/L but look where we are.
The opportunity to get a bird’s eye view of the canyon presented itself in the form of helicopter flights leaving from just down the road so we decided to treat ourselves and booked a flight after lunch. Our young female pilot was excellent and provided a short commentary on the area as we enjoyed a 15 minute fly over.
Later that afternoon we joined the masses at the sunset viewing area and enjoyed a couple of drinks whilst we watched the sky change colours toward the distant range.
Our plan the next morning was to be up early as the Canyon Rim Walk is 7+ kms and the recommendation is to complete no later than 1100 in hot weather which it was.
We managed to commence the walk at 0750 and for the first 30 mins tackled ‘heart attack hill’ as the path rose steadily toward the top of the canyon.
Words and even pictures do not do this area justice. I am running out of superlatives writing this blog but let me just say the agony of the climb was totally worth it! Once up to the top the trail meanders through sandstone domes (aka The Lost City) the lush Garden of Eden with its sacred waterhole and sites made famous in Priscilla Queen of the Desert, before its more gentle descent back to the car park on the eastern side.
There are several emergency helipads clearly marked along the trail alongside large metal lockers with emergency medical supplies inside and I suspect that they get used reasonably often. We also passed several memorials to people that have tragically lost their lives in this beautiful place.
We completed the walk in just over 3 hours (with lots of photo stops) without incident and then continued on to the Creek walk, a much flatter two kilometres to round out almost 10 kilometres for the morning! Seeing the Canyon up close and personal is not to be missed. Not a bad effort for grey nomads. Channeling some AFL tactics I jumped into the very cold pool on our return but couldn’t convince Russell of its merit. ๐
A lively dinner at the Thirsty Dingo Bar finished off the day and tomorrow we’re off to Ayer’s Rock.
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