Author Archives: Blackwattle Roaming

So this is the (much delayed) end of the story – for the moment anyway. The faster pace of travel and the discombobulation of our arrival home – with the million things that needed doing and people to say hello to – meant that it has taken a long long time to get the restContinue reading “Final entry this trip -Heading Home…”

27th August, 2021: Between new tyres, a lock-down, sudden necessary repairs to the van and Covid tests after sharing Woolworths with an infected traveller, it’s been 15 unplanned, 35/36 degree days in Katherine – a town we’d never intended to visit – when we are finally on the road again.  The Savannah Way will remainContinue reading “Abandoning Savannah”

7th August, 2021: Zipping north from Alice Springs on pure bitumen seems svelte, slippery and, well, just plain too sophisticated after the crossing of the Tanami.  Where’s the adventure in this? Now in our sixth month ‘on the road’, I want more than just bitumen and tourist highlights. Mostly I find I want interaction withContinue reading “Lucking-in, Lucking-out.”

The McDonnell Ranges of Central Australia have long been promoted by marketers, lauded by writers, photographed incessantly and adored by visitors. We’re heading north, but we can’t help taking a day or two first to drive the famous crescent route through Namatjira Country. Hermannsburg is a delight, not because of its paternalistic history, but becauseContinue reading “The Namatjira palette”

Alice Springs, ‘The Alice’, ‘The Red Centre’, movie set extraordinaire, (A Town Like Alice, Last Cab to Darwin, Pine Gap, Queen of the Desert… dozens of others, some brilliant, some ghastly, no, that’s too gentle – appalling!) Certainly, an Australian icon and not just on Australian shores. So what is the old lady of theContinue reading “Alice – An Eccentric Old Lady”

It’s the 18th July, 2021 now and we’re heading east – you could say we’ve turned for home, but it’s a long long way, toughest to come. We’re warned about Halls Creek – too dangerous, even if you lock everything. We’re warned about the Tanami Desert Crossing – too rough, even if you’re careful.  We’reContinue reading ““You’ve been warned””

We’re aiming for the Tanami Desert but Derby is close, so we’re tempted to visit as neither of us have been there. The countryside moving north is changing. Flowering wattle forests change to wide yellow grasslands populated by termite mounds, literally thousands of them, all producing methane, just as cattle do. Now the earth changesContinue reading “Into Boab-land”

7th July, 2021: There’s always someone to give you “good advice” as you travel – and sometimes it’s good, sometimes not. So, after leaving Broome, we turn off our intended destination near the tip of Cape Leveque, to check out a campsite on the way – Gnylmarung, run by an indigenous family – or community,Continue reading “From Broome’s glitz back to a little dose of heaven”

Leaving the Exmouth Gulf area, we’re now headed north to the series of ports which carry the output of the mines to their overseas destinations. We head east a little, back through Nanutarra Roadhouse, with its peacocks both albino and traditional… … before turning left for Dampier and Karratha.  The countryside is different again, withContinue reading “Coastal craziness – and changing our mode of travel”

1st June – 25th June, 2021: It’s not even the wildflower season, but the wildflowers have been stunning – here are our favourites so far, from Kalgoorlie northwards, just for the record: