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Remember the blog when we arrived in Coober Pedy, and the way we felt there? Ok, put yourself in that mindset again, but this time, start playing those five musical notes from Close Encounters of the First Kind, or the theme music from Twilight Zone in your mind...
We've arrived in Wycliffe Well for the night, and it's a bit strange! If you've been here before, you'll understand what we're talking about, but if you haven't, you probably won't understand the full picture until you do happen to stop by one day. Unlike us though, you'll probably hop back in your car and drive on... Yes, it's a BIG4 park, and initially, that gave us some comfort, but when we'd settled in and had a walk around, that rapidly diminished...
How about I start at the beginning, and try to explain? Wycliffe Well is supposed to be the UFO capital of Australia, like Roswell is to the USA. It's not a town though, there's only a petrol station, a roadhouse and the caravan park, all in one complex. I think they've tried to capitalize on their 'alien' reputation, to create a point of difference in their business, but they've gone way too far! It's just really, really weird. It would have been ok, if they'd stopped with a few touches to theme the place around the alien concept, but everyone walks around looking dumbfounded, and I mean everyone!! It feels like they've tried to create a tourist haven, a draw card to attract people, but it's failed, and been left to go to rack and ruin. There's an old steam train that (once upon a time) actually worked, and took people through the park and around Lake Wycliffe. The train is locked away inside a cage now, but you can walk the tracks around Lake Wycliffe and over the bridges etc. Lake Wycliffe is a 120 megalitre, man made water reservoir, which sits empty and unfilled. It was going to be home to Water Buffalo, but they're not here either... There's also Mt Wycliffe, a viewing platform which you can climb to the top of, to do a bit of UFO spotting. It's a rickety metal staircase that leads to the top of the workshop... Then there's the Galaxy Auditorium Restaurant, a 300 seat food and function centre, which is closed and run down. Everywhere you look, every wall, every surface, even the garbage bins, have been painted with murals depicting space and extra terrestrial activity. There's life size, concrete statues of aliens, and hulk, and Elvis, and gangsters, and animals all over... I can't get my head around it!! There's emus and chickens, and supposedly donkeys, but we haven't found those yet... Jo thinks they've done it to be different, and to attract people, but I think they'd do so much better if it was more normal and clean! People just want clean! Not weird! We won't shower here. It's not any where near BIG4 standard, and I think it's a mistake allowing substandard parks to remain in the chain. They don't have to provide all the bells and whistles, people don't expect it all the way out here, but it's not too much to expect it to be clean. Fortunately, we're here one night, and we've stayed hooked up for an early get away. They also have a big metal gate that gets locked each night, which they open at 6.30am. We'll be through it shortly thereafter...
Other than our impressions here, our day has been very uneventful. We left Alice at 9.30, and spent the majority of the day on the longest stretch of straight road IN THE WORLD!! Occassionally, a corner would appear on the horizon to break the monotony, but once I'd gone around it, there was nothing else. No road kill to have fun identifying. No clouds to make imaginary pictures from. Very few caravans heading south, most are going north, but we're back in the caravan clan wave groove again! We did see our first snake today, but it was one of the only pieces of road kill we saw. We also saw our first live kangaroo today, it crossed the road about 4km in front of us, but we still saw it!
We went to the Devils Marbles today (about 25km north of Wycliffe Well), because we had the time, and it meant we didn't have to stop again tomorrow. They're simply a collection of rounded granite boulders piled beside and on top of each other, but they are quite a sight to see, and spectacular colours.
The most noteable thing today? We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn! And we have the photo to prove it...
Tomorrow, we're off to Tennant Creek for a look around and lunch, and then to Barkley Homestead for the night. It'll only be one night, instead of two, as we're trying to get our itinerary back on track. We'll chat to you all from there, and hope they have phone reception, so we can publish todays blog as well...
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Aunty Min Hmmmmm almost sounds scary, I'll note that one down.So fill up at Alice & keep driving to Barkley, got it!! Well a short stop off for photo ops at Devils Marbles & Three Ways & keep going. Ah-huh. Weather still looks good though, swap you our -3 to 17 each day!! Enjoy Barkley & beyond.......