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.
