TOD Tour 2.0 Day 63 - Mataranka to Banka Banka Station

470km trip from Mataranka to Banka Banka Station today. We made stops at Daly Waters roadhouse, at a roadside rest stop about 20kms from Elliot and at Renner Springs roadhouse.

Sue drove the second leg and after we made an early start (7:20am) and ample time at each stop for Sue to stretch and walk for her back, we still managed to reach out overnight stop just before 3pm.

This was the longest daily leg of the trip and sums up the attitude of both of us. Time to get home.

TOD Tour 2.0 Day 39 - Barkly Homestead to Banka Banka

Where the Barkly Highway meets the Stuart

Odd day.

The run across to the Three Ways, where the Barkly Highway meets the Stuart Highway fairly close to the geographical centre of the Northern Territory, was just a steady drive. The new Forester is achieving better results than I could have predicted and tows the AVAN with such ease that cruising on 100km/hr is an easy task for it. With the open road speed limit set at a ridiculous 130km/hr, we are still slower than the cars but we occasionally overtake another van. With thousands of kms of road with unfenced stock roaming about, it seems a road toll just waiting to happen.

We knew we were about to run into several days off the reservation, so first turned south for Tennant Creek for supplies. We spent an uncomfortable hour there picking up what we needed and feeling like intruders. This was more than looking different to the locals. There was a very definite “attitude” and the bars on the buildings, ten feet high fences topped in barbed wire and drawbridge front gates of the caravan park made us feel uneasy. We have traveled a lot through Australia’s outback but this was something different. Our lack of comfort appeared to be backed up by reviews on social media and travel sites. We have never felt frightened among Aboriginal people before.

The last 100kms of our day was north to Banka Banka Station, formerly a working cattle station owned by the Kidman group. We had tried to stay here on our way to WA in 2008, but arrived just on sunset to find the gate locked and a sign saying “Don’t embarrass yourself by coming up the drive”. Today we arrived about 12:30pm.

Sites are arranged in a rough circle. Water is available but we weren’t keen to try it. There is no power. Overnight gigs are pretty easy as the car stays attached and we often don’t need the usual infrastructure. About 6:30pm, the bar opens and visitors are invited to join the smaller circle around the Banka Banka fire pit: a two part road culvert which has been inverted and filled in at each end. All ages gathered around, for along with oldies, a German couple with their three young children also  communed with us. The big attraction tonight was an infant children’s python, found in one of the washing machines.

It was a quiet, dark night. A new moon did little to help the stars shed light over the campsite but they did a good job of providing a marvelous spectacle. This is why we head off to far flung places.

Click for today's photos

Banka Banka itself was a bit of a disappointment. We had read much of it and in the end, it fell short of our expectations. Not that it wasn’t pleasant but rustic charm loses its unique appeal when you’ve experienced it so often and when it just appears tired.

Sue did enjoy watching the donkeys. This wore off with the braying into the small digit hours.

Mount Isa - Camooweal - Barkly Homestead - The Three Ways - Renner Springs

Fuel at Camooweal

Mount Isa - Camooweal - Barkly Homestead - Three Ways - Banka Banka Homestead - Renner Springs 773(3321) kms

Finally a day which felt like we had the holiday on track! After the frustrations of the week since
Yamba we have both become increasingly discouraged and a wee bit anxious that we were getting nowhere.

We started today in Mount Isa in the worst end of any caravan park in a working man’s town ... among the residents. Sue in particular felt uncomfortable for much of the night. A party raged across the road which at various times had racing cars, screaming young women, foul language and the issuing of threats of violence. At one stage, an older voice tried to ask for calm, only to be very impolitely told where he could go. Despite all this, we did manage some sleep snug and locked in the Forester.

We were up before sunrise again and out of the park by 7:45 am to find some shopping items and petrol. Our target was Barkly Homestead, about two thirds of the way across the Barkly Tableland in the Northern Territory. Given the reputation of fuel prices in those areas, I decided to fill my additional fuel tanks, which effectively doubles my fuel capacity. By complete luck, I found a United Petrol Station selling fuel for 160.9c/L. I soon snapped that up. I was told later in the day that the major companies were selling for 171.9c/L in Mount Isa.

Camooweal was our first stop for morning tea – 188kms from Mount Isa. The fuel here was 193.6c/L, making the Isa purchase a highly profitable one. We ate and drank quickly under some shady vines, whilst admiring a statue of a bullaroo – a mythical creature of these parts which is half kangaroo, half bull. Having seen the statue, I’d say there was more bull than just half!< Onto Barkly for lunch at 1:00pm and we were making very good progress, although driving well under the NT open road speed limit of 130km/h! I tipped in the first of the jerry cans to avoid paying the 240c/L charge on offer! We decided we still had a lot of day to drive in and couldn’t see much point staring at an unchanging horizon for the afternoon at Barkly, so headed in a further change of plan and the chance to catch up one of our two lost days. Sue took over and drove 150kms of the distance to The Three Ways – a Shell service station at the junction of the Barkly and Stuart Highways. We reached there at 3:45pm and decided to pass up the opportunity of staying at the Three Ways or heading south to Tennant Creek (25km). Every petrol station in north western Qld and the Territory seems to also offer accommodation Often, they are also a hotel. We set our destination for Banka Banka Station, a working cattle station that shows tourists what they do as part of their $6 a head charge for a piece of grass to park on and a hot shower. A phone call confirmed that no booking was necessary and that there was plenty of room at the inn, so off we set on the final 73 km.

Just after 5:00pm, we pulled into the driveway of Banka Banka to be met with a “house full” sign and a rather rude instruction to not discuss it with the management! Now we had a problem, as these outback roads are not to be driven from twilight on for fear of damaging the wildlife and in the process, inconveniencing your front grill and radiator. The nearest spot was a roadside stop where several vans had already gathered about 35kms earlier but being intrepid and more than a little foolish, we kept going forward to Renner Springs, 62kms to the north.

We made it as the sun was setting and completed a 791km day, surprisingly fresh and happy at our progress. I doubt we will drive many other days on this trip for as long but strange as it may seem, it didn’t seem a hard day, despite being nine hours from start to finish.

Hot showers, cold beers, a sizeable feed of vegies and rissoles and it was all I could do to complete my chores and then sit down to write. It’s a full moon this evening and it looks down on us outside the Desert Hotel at Renner Springs and readies us for bed. Its moonbeams will tuck me in tonight in the Northern Territory, content in the thought that most of the rushing is now complete and from now on we have lots of time to enjoy what we drive through and to.

TODAY'S PHOTOS

It’s after 10:00pm and Sue’s first snores are frightening the wildlife and the sandman is whispering in my ear that the moonbeams have other to attend to. Goodnight.