On the Way to Tennant Creek

Along our drive today we stopped at a few interesting places. 

One was the site marking the Tropic of Capricorn.  This is the farthest point south that the direct rays of the suns reach, meaning it’s the start of the tropics as we move north.

Another interesting spot was these termite mounds.  For hundreds of miles we saw these mounds, the further north we traveled the bigger they got.  We were told if we continued up to Katherine and Darwin (about 600k north) they can get up to 25 ft. tall. 

I got out and touched one.  They are really solid, like bricks.  You can ‘t tell from this picture but these mounds went deep into the field. There were easily a thousand here.  It reminded me of a big cemetery with these being the grave markers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This particular mound someone dressed up.  Ian’s standing flat on the ground so this one is about 5.5 ft. tall.

 

 

 

 

This one is closer to 6 feet tall but easily twice the diameter as the last one.

It’s hard to believe there are this many termites here.  There must be billions and billions!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These works of art are just off the highway.  Its an Aborigine family, the father is up on the hill depicting him looking out for the family down below which are positioned by the roadhouse.  The mother and child statue is about 30 feet tall.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not sure what the significance of the lizard is.  Aborigines use these a lot in their artwork.  I’ll have to do some research and find out. 

Another final spot we stopped at was the Devil’s Marbles.  This is an area where there’s a combination of sandstone and granite.  Over years and years the sandstone has worn away leaving these gigantic granite rocks – some circle shaped like giant marbles. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had been warned that Tennant Creek was a rough town.  From our first impressions I have to say the information was right on.  It’s a small mining town without much else to spur the economy.  As you drive down the main road you notice many of the establishments are bars or pubs.  A good percentage of the businesses including the pubs have bars on the windows and doors.  Matt and I went to find a grocery store and couldn’t find one at first. We finally found it and as we pulled in we noticed there were a lot of Aborigines crowded around.  Aborigines aren’t scary for the most part.  They just seem lost to me, wandering around town without any direction, some with shoes some without.  All week in Alice Springs I’d see them and wonder where they were going.  Did they have jobs?  I really felt bad for them.  I felt even worse when we pulled up to the grocery store and the police had an older Aborigine lady in the back of a police truck cage – like we have in the States for Animal Control.  I wish there was more information available to understand how they are (or aren’t) adapting to this new lifestyle.

Tomorrow we’ll try to go to church.  We drove around and found it tonight.  There’s no church building and we were told there isn’t a Branch President here, the missionaries run the services and there’s only about 5 members.  Should be interesting.