It was time to continue the trek up the middle of this massive country, so it was at 5:30am that I boarded my next bus tour that would take me north to Daly Waters. I was forced to take Adventure Tours as they are currently the only tour company that runs trips between Alice Springs and Darwin.
It was more of the same out the windows as the bus rattled north with a few hight light stops. The first stop was at a roadhouse in Wycliffe Well which is considered the UFO centre of Australia. The bar is also supposed to have a wide variety of beer selections, and it was here that I discovered an Ontario Beers poster. Our second stop was at the geological rock formation known as the Devils Marbles. The naturally rounded and oval boulders called Karlu Karlu by the local Aborigines are said to be the eggs of the rainbow serpent. With bright blue skies and sun it was relaxing to wander around these interesting rocks that are said to be formed from magma 1.7 billion years ago.
This leg of the trip was a lot of sitting on the bus. We camped for the night at Banka Banka cattle station/caravan park. It was a very nice place and every night they show a slide show that gives an insight into how these massive cattle stations run. The cattle station was 11,000 square km which is 3 million acres. The largest station in Australia is about 4 million acres and runs with 56,000 head of cattle. That is massive. The cattle station is bigger then the island of Jamaica.
The following morning we continued our journey north and arrived at Daly Waters around lunch time. One of the interesting things you see while on the road in the outback are the large Road Trains — trucks with 3 or 4 trailers. They are necessary to make land transport cost effective out here. It was here that I would leave the group and begin my stay in Daly with Clelland. As I entered the bar I was greeted with an ice cold Kokanee. It was so refreshing. 4 days in Daly Waters, this should be interesting.
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