Another chilly morning wakeup with a few more degrees on yesterday. Toasted cheese and bacon sandwich for breakfast, a chat with Dave Baker and a surprise donation of fruit and vegetables from a southern traveller (fruit and veg are not allowed to be taken into South Australia), had me packed up and on the road by 9Am.

It was just a short journey to Alice Springs for fuel and attempt to get a new caravan battery. Unfortunately, there was a lack of available batteries with the town been cleaned out by Finke Desert Race on the weekend. I guess I will have to rely on powered sites and the generator until I can get one in Darwin.

Back on the road and the CB was soon buzzing with travellers trying to get onto a pop-top caravaner whose pop-top had popped. It ended up that it was directly behind me but he was oblivious to what was going on. Eventually a car overtook us both, stopped up the road and flagged him down as I tried to slow up.

The rest of the drive was uneventful. I grabbed a cache at Barrow Creek and sat behind a couple of road trains that were sitting on 110 kph which helped out my fuel economy ?.

Passing Wycliffe Well (UFO capital of Australia) was a little depressing. We have stayed there many times with its quirky exhibits and statues. It has been closed for a number of years due to being flooded out but now it has been vandalised and many of the statues missing.

It must have been pension week with the main street of Tennant Creek full of “locals” particularly around the “waterholes”.

Camping for tonight was at Banka Banka Station. It was full tonight but it now has a booking system so there was a powered site waiting for me even though I didn’t get in until 5:30Pm. In the old days when there were no bookings taken, you needed to be here around lunchtime to guarantee a powered site.

Distance for the day was 701 kms. Fuel costs were $1.79, $2.49 and $1.82 per litre.