NYIRRIPI

We are making this side trip to visit our friends Archie & Di who are working at an Aboriginal Community called Nyirripi 160Kl  West of Yuendumu in the Tanami Desert.

 

 

 

This is the Shire Office where Di is the Manager for the Community.

 

 

 

And Archie is in charge of Vehicle Maintenance and Roads. This is his workshop.

 

 

Gypsy is a domesticated camel who lines up for a drink from the water hose and loves vegetable scraps.  She also gets in the yards and eats all the plants!!

 

There are about 300  Aboriginal people in the Community which along with the Shire Office and workshop has a clinic, general store, police station, school and  recreational  hall.

 

The mail arrives by plane each Wednesday. Nyirripi boasts a bitumen-sealed airstrip which is also used for emergency evacuations.

 

 

This is Col and Archie relaxing while waiting for the plane to arrive.

 

 

 

We visited an outstation which is being made ready for the Traditional Owners to occupy.

 

 

 

Even though the area is desert, there are natural wells where water can be found.

 

 

 

 

 

And the scenery is unbelievable – the country has not been grazed – it’s like it would have been 200 years ago.

 

But still the best view was as we were leaving and heading back to Alice Springs.

KATHERINE TO ALICE SPRINGS

We have had a few problems with the Scout and the mechanic was not at all helpful so Col replaced the gear box at the caravan park.

 

 

Bye Katherine! The intersection of the Bypass and the Stuart Highway on our way out of town. We were there for 5 weeks and 1 day in all.

 

We cruised quickly through Mataranka and Larrimah this time and on to the oldest Pub in the Northern Territory at Daly Waters.

 

 

Inside the pub  is an interior decorators delight. You stop here just to say “I had a beer at Daly Waters” and a barra burger.

 

 

On to the Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve – finely balanced piles of huge boulders – near Tennant Creek.

 

 

Everywhere you go there is bound to be an International truck. These relics are being admired by a tourist riding a bicycle outside the Wauchope Hotel.

 

The Overland Telegraph  Station at Barrow Creek is a well kept example from pioneering days.

 

 

 

There are small settlements (pubs and roadhouses) all along the Stuart Highway and between these are miles and miles of ‘nothing’

 

 

Just north of Alice Springs, the Tropic of Capricorn is located.

And a little further South is a monument depicting the highest point on the highway connecting Adelaide in the South and Darwin in the North

 

 

And at last – Alice Springs.