Up the Stuart Highway: Barrow Creek, Banka Banka and Gorrie Air Strip to Bitter Springs

Days in transit. We covered 1282 kms to get to the top end of the NT, doing 130km/h along the Stuart Hwy, with a few hairy moments overtaking road trains, and the landscape transforming from desert into scrubby grassland.

Before we left we stopped in at Alice Springs for a grocery shop, some sushi, and to check out this bookshop! Great selection of local history and Indigenous titles.

And Lux got an Akubra for her birthday from her grandmother Oba!

The highway is dotted with fuel stops that double as pubs, caravan parks and sometimes as hubs for groceries and postal services. If you are pounding up this highway, these are the only signs of obvious activity you see. Occasional dirt roads to closed communities streak off in either direction.

Some roadhouses are stranger than others. This one (Aileron) had some interesting sculptures, a camel paddock, resident peacocks, and one old bloke smoking in the bar.

There was also a huge, house-sized version of this sculpture looming from the hill above the station.

This first night we stayed at Barrow Creek WW2 staging site, a free bush camp and one of the many historical war landmarks up the highway.

The extent of the WW2 elements were concrete slabs dotted about, which certainly leant themselves to caravan camping!

Another roadhouse oddity was Wycliffe Well, which was not only a deeply quirky caravan park dedicated to aliens… it was an ABANDONED quirky caravan park dedicated to aliens.

We stopped at Karlu Karlu (Devil’s Marbles) on the way. This spot is jointly managed by the Kaytete, Warumungu, Warlpiri and Alyawarra traditional owners.

That evening we stayed at Banka Banka Station, another stopover that was functional not inspirational. Highlight was the curry van which to be fair served us up some delicious dahl and vindaloo!

Curry! Roti! Not a burger or hot chips in sight 😱

The mudbrick bar opened 5-7pm, blaring pop music while grey nomads networked around the communal fire.

On the final leg we were tossing up whether to make it all the way to Mataranka, or stop at Daly Waters Pub or nearby and have an early start and a short, easy stretch the next day. A lot hinged on this whole transit planning as we needed to ensure we made it somewhere special in time for Lux’s birthday (the 27th July) with no need to move on the actual day. It was a gamble that the place we were targeting, Bitter Springs Caravan Park, would be a dreamy spot and worth two nights… and a birthday celebration! Sounds ridiculous but the plotting around this was quite stressful, compounded by the fact we couldn’t book Bitter Springs and it was a first in, first served system (which does not favour us).

Without a doubt this was a pub with a few colourful stories to tell, but it had also clearly become a tourist magnet.

Collections included: thongs, shirts, humorous signs, bumper stickers…

…enamel cookware and cans and god knows what else!

We spied the croc, the goat and the horse. Not quite a full house.

By the time we’d finished our lunch at Daly Waters the day was wearing on and we were low on petrol. We decided to pull in at a free camp and make an early morning sprint to Bitter Springs for a good spot!

Gorrie Airfield: A Marinos-Cowell recommendation 🤌🏼

Trying to capture just how vast this unused airstrip was. Parked caravans glimmered into the distance.

The girls collected gumnuts for jewellery and made brushes out of grass. They discovered that maintaining a shop is a lot of work.

Thanks to Gorrie being an easy pack down and so close to Mataranka, we were able to get to Bitter Springs early and triumph in the caravan park Hunger Games!

Up the Stuart Highway: Barrow Creek, Banka Banka and Gorrie Air Strip to Bitter Springs

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Up the Stuart Highway: Barrow Creek, Banka Banka and Gorrie Air Strip to Bitter Springs

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