Tanami Road

We left Broome and the heat behind, or that was the plan. On the way to Fitzroy Crossing we passed through some very heavy rain and the temperature got down to 26⁰, so we were looking forward to some cool. However when we arrived it was 38⁰ and extremely humid. Throughout the night it didn’t get below 31⁰, so we sweated all night. Waking up to 32⁰ and humidity above 90% isn't fun.

So we filled up with fuel and headed towards Halls Creek and then down the Tanami.

As we pulled into a scenic stop the road workers told us that our air conditioner was being blown nearly vertically on the roof of the van. I wondered what the hell could cause the air-con the blow off, so I got up on the roof of the van to investigate. Two of the four screws that hold the cover to the air-con on had totally disappeared. So I had to take the whole cover off. In Halls Creek we bought 2 more screws and washers at the local hardware costing $6.50. Screwed them in and this avoided a really expensive repair. If these workers hadn’t have told us this the whole cover would have blown off and we wouldn’t have known about it.

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The Tanami Road has been described as “the worst road in Australia”, “road to hell” as well as “the road to nowhere”. Watch a good video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO6Gl6NeX-g or read http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/2008/10/31/worst-road-in-the-worldaustralia-the-tanami-road/ or http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/tanami-road/4718100 .

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Our first night on the Tanami Road was at Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater. This is the second largest meteorite crater in the world. The largest being in Arizona. An amazing event that happened 300,000 years ago. It’s also where the horror movie Wolfe Creek was staged. We never saw anyone else there but 2 lots of German tourists, but they aren’t really scary, although some are! This part of the outback is full of German tourists in Apollo motor homes.

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The next day we pulled into Billiluna for fuel, this aboriginal community is actually on the Canning Stock Route, not the Tanami Road. So we have driven part of the Canning Stock Route! We purchased 50 litres of diesel at a whopping $2.60 per litre. This is without question the most expensive fuel we've ever seen. Unleaded was the same price. Lucky we filled up at Halls Creek, so we only needed 50 litres. It’s the first time I've been robbed and I was able to pay via credit card and the robber had a smiling face without knife or weapon other than if you didn’t pay his price you would die in the desert! Sort of the same really.

Billiluna is a community of around 200 people. We drove through the community and despite the sign on entry claiming it was a dry community there were beer cans scattered throughout the piles of rubbish strewn around the town. It was the dirtiest community we've been in, even we were shocked just how dirty it was and we've seen dirty communities before. The locals were friendly though.

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The Tanami Road or Highway if you believe the sign is 1059 kms long of which 890kms is dirt road. The longest section without fuel is 585kms. And there's not much for these 585kms! Although as we drove past the Newmont Gold mine we did get mobile service!

We camped half way along the track, which is what it is really, and we didn’t see another soul the whole time we were there. That night it cooled down nicely and we even had to turn on the hot water heater in the morning for our shower. This was the first time in months where we've had to use the hot water heater.

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There was another aboriginal community where we could have paid another $2.60/litre, but we had enough to get to Tilmouth Roadhouse, where it cost a mere $2.25/litre. So we took 20L to get to Alice Springs. We arrived with about 5 kms of diesel to spare in the Cruiser plus 10L spare in the diesel heater in the van.

Our summary of the Tanami Road is that it was really good, not badly corrugated, but enough to upset the fridge contents etc. in the van. We were mostly sitting on 70 or 80 kms/hour with the cruise control on, so easy going really. Sections of it were as straight as a die and you could see the track disappearing over the horizon in many places. So it certainly isn't the worst road in Australia nor the road to hell that it was a few years ago.

We’re in Alice Springs now and its hot again, above 42⁰ today with the blessing that there's no humidity so it’s not so bad, it also cools down at night, to the point where we had to use the doona last night again for the first time in months.

We’re off to the Symphony under the Stars tomorrow night in Alice. It’s a free event and no alcohol allowed. We’ll see about that! Nothing is done in these parts without grog.

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