It’s a 1000km of dirt, corrugations, gold mines and road trains. The Tanami Track is also the fastest way from the Centre to the west. It took us three days.

Here we go – see you in a 1,000km

The first two hundred km are tarred, but after that it is nothing but red dirt as far as the eye can see.

The last of the tar

800km of this

Fair warning to fuel up

There is one roadhouse and one aboriginal community along the entire length of the Track. There used to be more, but as with many other outback areas – the life was just too hard for too little and stations were abandoned.

The ruined remains on an old station

Nature is now in command of the machine

Relics of another era

An abandoned cattle station vehicle

We spent our first night looking out across the salt pan of Lake Lewis and the last of the West MacDonald ranges in the distance and enjoyed a spectacular moonrise.

A blood red moon rise over the Tanami

Red moon rising in a black sky

The fading light glinting off the troopie

Our first camp spot on the Tanami Track

The morning was pretty special too!

Far from the crowds

A ghost gum and the moon early in the morning light

Black kite

Desert mornings glow

The West MacDonald ranges in the distance

We liked it so much that we are willing to share with other travellers, so entered it on the Wiki Camps app, which is the camping bible in Australia.

Nimmo’s Rest WikiCamp entry

Day two and the corrugations on the dirt road were pretty bad. The tyres kick up ruts in the dirt, which become deeper and more cut up the greater the traffic and the faster the speeds. Sometimes our speed was down to 20km just to minimise the shakes.

Geoff dropping the tyre pressure for the rutted road ahead

The corrugations have rattled a few bolts loose on the car

The photos don’t do justice to the road, so here’s a short video to give you an idea of what it feels like. This isn’t the worst part, I couldn’t hold the phone for that bit!

But there is much more to the desert than ruts and dust. And there’s always time for a cup of tea, regardless of the state of the road

A nice cuppa tea

Our second night was even more glorious than the first. On a full moon we found the only raised section of desert for miles. With 360-degree views we watched the desert colours change with the rising and setting sun and moon.

Sunset on our stony knoll – the highest point of the desert for miles

The International Space Station shot through our night sky

Sunrise with the last dot of the moon still on show

The desert sunrise

About 5km away was The Granites Gold Mine.

The Granite gold mine in the distance

Home to the world’s largest road train. For the nerdy among you, it is so big it can pull 400tonnes of gear, with a 650HP prime mover at the front and a remote controlled 400hp engine trailer in the middle. We didn’t see the truck, although we heard many ploughing up and down nearby tracks, but we did manage to steal their wifi signal and took great delight in phoning home from the middle of the desert!

The desert below our vantage point

The delicate blond grasses transform the landscape

A golden grassy shimmer

The winter rains have brought golden grass and green trees to the desert

Parts of the Tanami Track feel a little samey in terms of view, but there are also endless surprises and wonderful places to pull up.

Not a bad spot for lunch

Our shadow was longer, but he loomed larger

The brahmin-crossed cattle have a serene, but definite presence

The wedge-tail eagle has a wing span of nearly three metres

Termite mounds come in many shapes and sizes

A very large termite mound

A Boab tree

A little bit of trucker road art on the Tanami Track

Day two and we were on the fuzzy end of another road train. One of the things that is good to avoid on a dirt road is getting stuck behind another vehicle – especially a large lorry.

Road trains blot out the view as they pass

This is what it is like trying to get passed one. Turn up the volume to hear Geoff and the driver’s discussion and some under-the-breath swearing from me!

The driver was our eyes ahead, when his clouds of dust were making us blind. It was a little hairy, but you put your faith in the guy who can see and go for it!

Towards the end of the Tanami Track is Wolfe Creek – the world’s second largest meteorite crater.

A sunset arrival didn’t give much away

A mere 300,000 years ago a 20,000 ton meteorite, travelling at 15km per second, or 54,000km per hour (considerably faster that we managed on that road), slammed into the earth and exploded a crater 140m deep and 850m wide. Today the crater has been filled with dust and only sits 11m deep – but it is still an impressive and mind-boggling sight to imagine what happened here.

The second largest meteorite crater in the world

Wolfe Creek is also the scene of a slasher movie where hapless road trippers are tricked into a mass murderer’s house. The fake bloodied hand on the sign for the crater was a little reminder of the movie.

Thankfully, we have a mechanic on board and we were more awed by what a meteor could do, than a Hollywood manic.

Look closely and see the “bloody” hand

Although I did think this dude floating in the air near our tent was pretty scary.

Floating cobwebs, with attitude

The Tanami Track is interstate – crossing from Northern Territory to West Australia.

The boundary marker between West Australia and Northern Territory

The unassuming sign is a major landmark for us, as we now venture into states unknown. From now on everything in this ancient part of the continent is new to us both and already we have seen some extraordinary places.