After leaving Tennent Creek we had hoped to get 'off the beaten track' and we did.

We started at the Devils Marbles, OK, not off the beaten track and another 'must see' place in the NT. Unfortunately, from our perspective, another disappointment. While they were interesting, we struggled to find the iconic 'marbles', there were a number of rounder boulders, but not the ones in the promo photos. On our walk around we passed an Aboriginal sacred site where you are asked not to take photos, so we didn't. We were disappointed to hear and see that someone that didn't see, or chose not to see the sign saying "No Drone Flying", did so anyway. We also saw two people walking their dogs despite there being signs saying no dogs.

After visiting the marbles we retraced our steps north to Binn's Track, or this part of it anyway. The Binn's Track is named after a park ranger who wanted to create a 4WD experience from the South Australian border in the south to Gregory NP in the north, a distance of 2,191 Ks. We were doing just the small bit from the Stuart Hwy to the Plenty Hwy, this would take us through the Davenport NP.

At the start of the Binn's Track we stopped and let some air out of our tyres to help on the corrugations before continuing on to our destination, Epenarra Station where we had arranged to catch up with our Victorian friends again. We had fist caught up with them at Barkly Homestead.

At Epenarra Station they have free camping along the Frew River near the homestead and store. They have a lovely long flat area with many River Gums running by the side of a very large waterhole. This combination attracts many cockatoos too! The store is amazing, it has everything you could want, from food to clothes and even TVs! It has a lot to do with there being an Aboriginal community just 1K down the road.

After a lovely night around a small fire we once again said goodbye to our friends before making the short trip down to Old Police Station Waterhole. This is another camping area along the banks of the Frew River, though this one is in the Davenport NP. Again there is a large waterhole with River Gums and cockatoos along the length of it. When we arrived there were three other camps occupied and after setting up we went to pay our entrance fee of $4 each per night. We also signed the Covid contact register, which we noted hadn't been signed by any of the others.

We then went for a walk to the other side of the waterhole were there are the ruins of the Police Station that was abandoned 100 years ago. It looked as if it was constructed of dry stone walls, so needless to say there isn't much left.

We were pleased to wake in the morning after a nice quiet night. Today we had decided to take a drive along a track marked as suitable for high clearance 4WDs and not suitable for trailers. We had been told it was a nice drive, and it didn't disappoint. In the beginning it took us to two other campsites along the Frew River, nice, but not as nice as where we were. Then the track turned away from the river and climbed up out of the valley, some of the climbs where quite challenging and the views from the top were brilliant. Some of the best we have seen on this trip. Eventually the track rejoined the Binn's Track, so we were able to take that back to camp.

When we arrived back we found that none of the other campers had left and by night fall another six joined us. The camping area is marked to have six campsites in total. We are pleased to report that we had another beautiful quiet night.

In the morning as we left I checked the register and only three others had signed in after us. Makes us wonder if they even bothered paying to stay. Our run today followed some good dirt roads and some not so good dirt roads with lots of corrugations and bull dust. We saw some old gold mining sites and some Donkeys and some more waterholes before we called it a day and set up camp on the bank of Bundey River. Unfortunately dry, but very nice, all the same.

This section of the track had been quite narrow and soft in places and in the morning it continued for some time before emerging onto another station road. We followed this road to our next destination, Tower Rock. We had been told this was definitely a 'must see' place and that it had good camping.

When we arrived it was just before lunch. So we stopped at the information sign and read how a man named Mac and his wife Rose had owned MacDonald Station on which this Tower stood. They had loved bringing there family and friends here for picnics, so had turned it into a conservation park for others to enjoy. When Mac and Rose passed away they had asked to be buried here. Their grave is under a magnificent Ghost Gum.

After reading the information we took the walk to the top and were amazed by the views we had from the top. This 'tower' is much like the Devil's Marbles, but so much better, it is amazing. From the top you feel like you can see for ever and way off in the distance you can see mountain ranges, just breath taking.

After fighting the flies for our lunch we headed off, heading for Mount Swan homestead, but on the way we noticed a vehicle coming the other way which looked very familiar, it was our Victorian friends again. They were heading to Tower Rock to camp, so we turned around and joined them for another beautiful night under the stars.

On our way to the Plenty Hwy we called in at Mount Swan Station for fuel and maybe some supplies. The fuel was $2.50 a litre! We only bought 40 litres, enough to get us to Alice Springs and the store didn't have anything we wanted.

After some more rough roads we arrived at the Plenty Hwy which was sealed. So from here to Alice was a nice change and for the most part the Plenty Hwy was some of the best road we had been on in the NT.

Once in Alice we booked into a very nice caravan park that came with an equally nice price tag, but I guess you get what you pay for.

We spent three days here in Alice. The first day was spent topping up on supplies and fuel. We also visited the information centre to find out about visiting other places in the area and most importantly about getting the required permits to travel the Great Central road back into WA.

The permits weren't really any problem, but on checking the latest WA Government information for travel from NT, we found that we may be required to travel back through Kununurra, making it a 5000K return trip, where as the way we wanted to go was around 1800K. Fortunately that changed a couple of days later and we should be good to go.

On our second day the highlight was visiting the old telegraph station. It has been so well restored/preserved and has great information to give you an insight into what it must have been like in the 1800s out here.

One interesting fact we learnt, was that Alice Springs was originally called Stuart Town and that the telegraph station was built next to the Todd River at a water hole that originally was thought to be a spring and named Alice Spring, which then became the name of Alice Springs.

On our last day we spent a lot of time looking through the Australian Woman's Museum which is housed in the old Alice Springs Goal. A fantastic museum with lots of information and history. We also went in search of souvenirs.