The country from Tennant Creek to Newcastle Waters is a vast clay pan which sees rain very infrequently. The terrain is gently rolling hills and the flora is low scrub and Mitchell grass. Lots of it have been devastated by bush fire in recent times and the ground cover has gone altogether in many places.
North of Newcastle Waters the scenery changes suddenly and dramatically to dense woodland of bloodwood, ironwood and lancewood trees. Why this happens, I know not but the effect is quite startling.
We took a short detour in to Daly Waters because the tourist guide had described it as a great little place to visit. We didn't stop but went instead to the Daly Waters Airfield which is a heritage site commemorating the rise and fall of Daly Waters from the inception of England to Australia flights which needed a refuelling stop here through its use as a base during WW2 for planes attacking the Japanese in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) to its post-war support for regional development, and its demise with the advent of ubiquitous road transport.
We pressed on to the north and stopped overnight at Larrimah, a town of 14 inhabitants, which boasts a ghost town on its original site across the creek. This was the terminus of the line south from Darwin and a wartime supply base. It is now a pub, a roadhouse, and a museum staying alive, just, on the passing trade of tourists like us.
The pub is a typical outback pub with some dubious "attractions" on the walls. This one has the tallest bar in the Territory - about five feet high - ha, ha. We had a beer and chatted to some locals and some tourists before withdrawing to the Motley for a quiet evening in.