We headed off this morning after a quick shower - no electricity dso Sue couldn't do her hair. First stop was just north of the roadhouse so I that I could view what was left of the old Barrow Creek racecourse and reminisce about that race meeting some 43 years earlier. After a few photos we moved on to the stange outpost of Wycliffe Well roadhouse and holiday park I say strange as it claims to be the UFO centre of Australia and the murals and statues etc. are all designed to bolster this idea. Next stop en route was the iconic Devil's Marbles site or Karlwekarlwe to give them their proper aboriginal name. Again this was somewhat nostalgic for me having stopped here to rest some 43 years ago while driving to Alice Springs from Tennant Creek. We spent some time wandering around the site and reading the billboards explaining it's significance. And then it was on to Tennant Creek and the road west to Warrego where I lived and worked for some 9 months as a shift foreman in the copper smelter back in 1974. The township at Warrego no longer exists as the mine and associated infrastructure closed down many years ago. As well all that remains of the Smelter where I would travel to work some 30 km back towards Tennant Creek is the smokestack that was used to disperse the toxic sulphur dioxide gases higher in the atmosphere. Tennant Creek itself held many memories for me as well and a great deal had changed while other parts not at all. We left Warrego to go back to town and then drove eastward to the old township of Peko which also now lies abandoned with all the houses gone. Back toward town we stopped at the Battery Hill Gold Mining and Heritage Centre which was fascinating for me (and Sue) looking back over time to see the history of mining in this area - so many memories. Eventually we headed north of town and set up camp at Attack Creek 24 hour rest stop 72 km north of Tennant Creek.
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