29th July Tennant Creek

 Kms today 400            Kms to date 7884

I met the two adventure bike riders as they packed up their machines in the morning.  They had started in WA and rode across to Uluru via Warburton. Then they took every dirt road they could find and were heading to Darwin. Reminded me of two dirt bike riders Alan and I  met in 2010 at Cape Crawford. They would rather ride on the dirt shoulder than on the bitumen!

A KTM and much modified Ducati Multistrada - serious off-road bikes

 I successfully made my application to enter Queensland while I ate my breakfast at the Hi Way Inn.  They had good Optus reception and a good breakfast!  I took off at 8:30 and made my first stop at Renner Springs.  The Chinese lady at the till told me she loved motorcycles and came out to wave me off!

I'm now retracing my steps and that makes the journey less interesting.  After I checked into the Goldfields Motel I walked down the road to the Nyinkka Nyunya Art Centre.  It was very hot. There was a new exhibition being set up. An artist in residence, Bevil Staley, had painted faces of Aboriginal Elders taken from photographs.  He used colours of the earth around Tennant Creek very effectively. I bought a painting by Dianne Williams called Bush Tucker and her nephew was working in the Gallery that day.

It's 36 Degrees a  2:30 in the afternoon

 

One of Bevil Staley's portraits

Bush Tucker by Dianne Williams

I went back to the Goldfields Hotel and front bar was full of local Aboriginals, so I bought a beer and settled down to observe the fun.  A couple playing pool were having a lively conversation in the local language, but things were pretty quiet.  I had a conversation with an old Aboriginal man sitting at my table.  He had a big white beard and shaggy hair.  He told me about his recent journeys around all his relatives, which were numerous, but he spoke very softly so I couldn't hear everything he said.  I finished my beer and stood up to go and as usual my clumsy gene lead to me knocking over my empty glass.  A young Aboriginal man immediately jumped up to help me if I stumbled - he had been watching me even though I didn't notice it.  I thanked him and assured him I was OK.  I thought, they were checking me out as I was the only 'white fella" in the bar.  I didn't feel any antagonism or threat in Tennant Creek, even though there were more Aboriginals than Europeans.  They just lived their own lives and didn't mind me at all.

Morag called me later very distressed that she was still having battery problems. I did some internet research into the Ioniq chat rooms.  It turns out that the aux battery is charged by the traction battery not an alternator. For this to be successful the traction battery has to be regularly fully charged.  When I was with Morag I charged it up most nights and had no problems.  She is going to have to charge it up every couple of days which of course makes free camping much more difficult. She is angry that her plans have been scuppered by the car. I am responsible for this situation because I was against her taking Catherine's car, which would not have had these battery problems when free camping. But I was concerned about more mechanical problems with the Nissan