Beautiful Barkly Homestead and Weird Wycliffe Well - 10th & 11th October 2012

We were out of bed just on sunrise and all packed ready to beat the heat on our day's ride. On the road by 8:00am and already 30 degrees and it would get to 40 degrees before the day was over. We had broken out our gel filled water soaked neckies for the first time since we left home in February. They act as an evaporative air conditioner on your neck and as a lot of blood flows through the neck it helps to keep the body cool. First stop was Camooweal and the last town in Queensland before passing into the Northern Territory.

We had been warned about some road works after Camooweal and sure enough they were quite long and quite rough. Two lots in all and probably 10 km on each. Not long after crossing the NT boarder we had our first close encounter with the LAW in 21,000km of riding. Out in the middle of nowhere there was a licence and breath check and being good citizens we passed with flying colours. The break gave us a chance to stretch, rehydrate and have a friendly chat with the two young Policemen. With the ever so basic donga, at the Burke and Wills Roadhouse on our wedding anniversary, we were a bit apprehensive about what was in store at Barkly Homestead. This all disappeared as we rolled in to a well-appointed roadhouse and excellent cabins. Should be for $140 for the night, which is a fortune for cheapskate Intrepids.

Thunder clouds were building as we settled in to the respite of an air conditioned room, mobile phone reception and internet connection - luxury ! A refreshing dip in the pool was interrupted by thunder and lightning accompanied by strong winds which soon covered the whole pool with dust and leaves but it was the thought of as lightning strike on the pool that sent us scurrying like rats into the cabin.

Barkly to Wycliffe Well

After Trish, Josef, Ray and Margaret spent a sleepless night in Tennant Creek back in 2004 there was no way we were staying there. Drunk, drug fuelled Indigenous roaming outside the caravan park which was guarded by Pit-bull dogs was enough to put us off this time so we took the safe option of booking into a Big 4 caravan park at Wycliffe Well, knowing Big 4's are always good and have great standards.

The highlight of the ride was a stop at The Devil's Marbles some 23km before Wycliffe Well. The huge jumble of very large rounded and weathered granite boulders was a feast for the eyes. A perfectly clear deep blue sky was contrasted by the reds of the boulders and all this set against the red soils and spinifex. Beautiful! Trish was so captivated by the beauty that she disappeared, as only she can do and was drawn off into the unknown and leaving me searching for her for some 15 minutes. When she finally reappeared with such a satisfied and happy look on her face I decided to call off the SES search. Later reading one of the Indigenous stories of the area we found that they talked of people that would lure you off never to be seen again. Looks like she went close to disappearing. Finally we drew ourselves away from the beauty of the place and headed on to Wycliffe Well and sanctuary. Or so we thought!

Wycliffe Well was no sanctuary, a dusty run down Caravan Park that somewhere in the past had seen its heyday. Faded murals mainly of aliens and spaceship were everywhere. They have been clinging to the title of UFO Capital of Australia in the hope of getting a few customers and selling some of their massive range of UFO and Alien kitsch. The high barbwire fences and barbwire bound around the large wrought iron gates that would be closed at night and only opened at 6:30am, should have told us something. The Indigenous under the river bridge another clue and the only bottle shop for many kms, now it was all starting to gel. We were wrong about Big 4 caravan parks having standards as this was scraping the bottom of the barrel. A very ordinary steak sandwich served by a very creepy "Lurch" like character sent us scarpering back to our cabin as fighting and arguing between the local Indigenous broke out on the outside veranda. We turned up the volume of the very fuzzy TV, in a donga worse that Burke and Wills, peered past the multiple coloured lines that ran top to bottom on the TV and hoped that the barbwired fence and now closed gate would keep the peace.

Thankfully the shouting and arguing did not go on all night and by 11:00pm all was quiet and The Intrepids had another belly laugh and settled in to sleep. In the morning the day was cool and fresh and the gates were open and we were off. Wycliffe Well will stick in our brains like The Devil's Marbles but for completely different reasons. But that is what adventures are all about!

If you are really brave go to the video section of the blog and see Trishy reporting from Wycliffe Well UFO Capital

Un-anal probed Dave