Roadtrip - The long drive to Alice

On the way to Alice Springs

So where is the UFO capital of Australia? Australia has its own little version of Roswell, didn’t you know? Well the answer is Wycliffe Well. The only highway between Darwin and Alice Springs has a handful of small townships along it and these all compete for people to stop, either for fuel or a room for the night. There is no need to stop for any other reason (except maybe for some chocolate milk, that’s another story) so many small townships have become creative in ways of luring suckers (like The other Spaz) to stop. We stopped! We saw no aliens! So with an ice-cream each and a postcard and stubby holder we left Wycliffe Well.

A little further down the road we ran into the Australian Army on the move, well not the entire army but a very LARGE tank and some type of armored personnel carrier.  We got to overtake this very wide load a couple of times as we stopped at interesting places like Wycliffe Well, Tennant Creek and the Devil’s Marbles.

The Devil’s Marbles are a wonder. These were incredibly large rocks in the middle of a dessert. We explored the marbles, saw a lizard, the remains of an old truck and the skeleton of a cow. A fire had recently been through the area making it feel a little bit eerie.

 Alice Springs was a sight for sore eyes, and sore legs and a numb bottom. It was a reallllllllly long drive getting there but it was a great place to stop for the night. Since the House of Spaz are fans of Bill Bryson and we had reread his book ‘Down Under’ before we left, we decided to follow his advice and to go and visit the Alice Springs Desert Park. This is where they have recreated three different types of desert habitats and display the flora and fauna of them. It was great for us as it gave us the names of the birds we had seen and were about to see (some very closely as the bounced off the car, … another story).