the excitement of each day . The challenges of travel and shared enjoyment with your travel partner .
The next day there was an atmosphere in leaving Tennant Creek , just after dawn , to cover the distance of over 500km to our next stop at Alice Springs .
It ’ s the early morning stirring of a rural town . The few early risers , people on the street , waving , recognising the loaded sidecar as being on a mission to cover outback kilometres that day . The anticipation of what the day will bring . Being in a different environment .
It ’ s the early morning soft light , passing through the landscapes of vivid red sand and dirt , the parallel dunes and acacias lining the road . The straw-coloured Kangaroo Grass , the blues of vegetation , the soft colour of the sky . The feeling of distance , with the road in front beckoning for exploration . There are just a few trucks on the road . I
give a wave to a truckie who has been travelling these isolated roads at night .
Further down the road we rode through the large granite boulders with the traditional name of “ Karlu Karlu ” or to the European settlers “ Devils Marbles “. On the sidecar , we were able to use small rough access tracks to get the best views . There was a change in the landscape as we crossed the Davenport Range and on to Wycliffe Well roadhouse .
It was at Wycliffe Well roadhouse that I was moved by the experience of meeting the gentlest man . He was about 30 years old and was kicking things around the parking area . A parking area that was built of a size for road trains to park .
The man came over to where I was parked and was admiring the sidecar . He said he really liked the bike . I asked him where he came from . He too , with a point , said “ Over there ”.
I asked where over there was . He replied it was the community of Ali Curung . It turns out that community is 40km down the road .
We had a chat about his life . Then he said , “ I am going over there now . You have a really good ride brother and God bless you ”.
Then off he went up the dry creek bed kicking around exploring what was there . A moving interaction with a man who had lived all his life in the desert and had kindness in his heart .
There were more rock formations at Barrow Creek Telegraph Station , opened in 1872 . This was part of an overland telegraph system that opened up communications in Australia but also had an immense detrimental impact on the Aboriginal people living on their ancestral lands . The telegraph station used morse code to relay messages across the country .
We pushed onwards to Alice Springs . There were frequent straights of four to five kilometres .
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