For years driving up and down to/from Darwin, I have passed the Banka Banka Station and have always said that I will stop one time and stay the night. This year rather than drive past, I was going to stop and spend the night. A retired workmate, Geoff had stayed there a week ago and recommended it.

Usually on the up journey, I continue onto Mataranka and on the down journey, continue to Tennant Creek or Wycliffe Well. Even though it looks inviting, there is no power available but it always seems to be packed each time I have past.

I got up a little early, so that a morning soak was in order, getting into the warm water at 7am. It was hard to get out, not because it was going to be cold but as it felt so good. This morning was unusual with high humidity, cloud cover and ground fog.

We hit the road around 830am and it took about 50 kilometres before the fog burnt off and blue skies prevailed again.

This section of road is devoid of geocaches to find as I have found them all except one. After finding that one 173 kilometres down the track, my GPS then indicated there were no geocaches within 180 kilometres. That is something you don’t see often.

There was one incident of note. A single trailer semi trailer couldn’t wait to get past me and past Garry in front of me. In fact he had no regard for any other road users with overtaking me and Garry when there was traffic coming from the other direction. This ended up for the vehicles coming from the south having to go off the road and Garry and I to brake heavily and steer off the road when he pulled back to the left without even overtaking us completely.

Unfortunately after checking the dash cam footage, there is no markings on the prime mover or the trailer. Hopefully I will be able to enhance the licence number on the trailer and pass it onto the Northern Territory Police.

Arriving at Banka Banka Station at 330pm, we were not able to get a site on the main grassed area but was directed to an overflow area near the generator. The noise wasn’t that bad and we were away from the lights of the main area which allowed a good view of the millions of stars once it got dark.

Garry and Deb with their cameras and tripods were having a good time taking star and sky photos. I got into the fray experimenting with settings on the phone and using the car as a tripod. I did manage a few reasonable photos. Next time I will make sure I pack my tripod.

One of the camping families were musical and put on a bit of a show singing folk songs around the campfire. We sat and listened for a while before having a great hot shower and heading to bed.

Another easy day tomorrow with a 217 kilometre leg to the Devils Marbles Hotel. Another one of those spots that I have driven past but never stopped.