We got up early this morning (quelle suprise) as we've around 800km to cover today. We went for a swim at the Malaranka thermal pools in Elsey National Park first thing. Larrimah with a population of 16 people was the next stop. it used to be a telegraph repeater station and a military base. As the latter, it was famous (relatively) for 'the blue room", a rather sumptuous toilet by the (obviously bored) telegraph operators. It was fitted out with deckchair, complete with armrests, flowers and a fully stocked library

Daly waters, our lunch stop, was the first Oz international airport. Bizzarely, the runway surface is completely made of termite mounds. Crushed, mixed with water and laid, they are able to withstand the constant battering of airplanes landing. At its peak planes were landing and taking off at a rate of 40 an hour. Opened in 1930 the Daly Waters pub is the longest running pub in Australia - it is open (and has been) every day since the first day it opened. There is a permanent population of 26 people in and around the pub.

Elliot, was a staging camp in WW2 and was named after Major Randle Elliot.

1. The whole town is built on the western side of the road.
   This is because civilians where not allowed on the eastern side when the area was used as a staging camp.
2. The local police make more revenue in fines than anywhere else in the Territory - including the major cities.
3. The town has a population of 600.
4. The townspeople spent a grant given to them by the government to improve the town on building a golf course - and not one of the residents plays.

The whole area is Cattle Country and it's big country. There's a sign at the start of the Berkley Stock Route that warns about the lack of fuel availability.

On and on we drove, all the way to tennant creek (with a population of 4000 people, it's the 4th largest town in the Northern Territory. We stayed at Juno horse farm, sleeping in Swags. These are canvas bags that come with a built in mattress. You simply unzip them and get inside with your sleeping bag; no need for a tent.

This part of the tour is very different from the last section. We're on a 55+ seater tour bus and with almost 40 people onboard it's not as personal as at Kakadu. The tour guides run a grand (good) double act. And even if they have chosen to live a symbiotic existence, taking turns to borrow the common brain cell, it just adds interest to the tour.

To tomorrow