Woke up in Wauchope at the Devils Marbles Hotel.
I’d had the best of sleeps, I’d had the worst of sleeps, as the bed was so snuggly and the hotel so quiet, yet the constant fear of sleeping in the gecko drop zone meant I feared waking up covered in geckos screaming “where’s my tail?”
We did the old showers and breakfast routine and were soon on the road….
Long and winding road
…… 11 May 1970, Lennon McCartney
Well that song was not written about the road from the Devils Marbles Hotel to Alice Springs! It had been discussed earlier that there was a chance of possibly sighting some aliens in the town of Wycliffe Well.
Wycliffe Well is the UFO capital of Australia and only 12 minutes from the Devils Marbles so off we went dragging Jayne by the hair kicking and screaming as she was more convinced it would be lame as opposed to AMAZING like Katherine and I believed. It turns out it was a mix of both. The locals were clearly milking the aliens for everything they’ve got! It was so bad it was great!! 
We took the obligatory alien photos as you do and hit the road again. The long tedious drive was made better by mine and Katherine’s excellent car karaoke to our newly put together “Australia Road Trip 2016” playlist on my iPhone. Such classics as “Hangover, Goodluck and Battlefield (now Boulder field due to the rocky scenery), were sung completely in tune and beautifully like a couple of songbirds. Jayne seemed to be so mesmerised by our soulful tunes and pitch perfect renditions of modern pop classics that she promptly put in her headphones and caught up on writing blogs. Oh well, it was her loss…..
I stopped to take a photo at Barrow Creek telegraph station that had nice old brick fences and buildings as they looked nice and I felt that there wasn’t much else to look at during this long tedious drive. We cruised the Stuart Highway like three badass chicks on a legendary road trip, loving the open speed limit i cruised past losers doing 100km per hour. I even shot passed the police of which we had been following for a little while. When we next stopped at a roadhouse to fuel up the police pulled up as well and proceeded to remove a young handcuffed indigenous man for a toilet stop whilst the other officer stood guard by the van with the other prisoner. When they returned him to the van they ordered food for both prisoners and themselves.
Next we detoured to a small community and roadhouse off the Stuart Highway about 135km north of Tennant Creek. This was Aileron. Home to the giant statue on the hill of “Anmatjere Man” which was erected in 2005. At 17 metres tall and weighing 8 tonne he is certainly impressive! He was on that hill for 3 lonely years until he was finally given a family. In 2008 he was given a wife and child that are situated at the base of the hill with a goanna that is on the end of her spear. Up close it was surprising to find that her anatomy was scarily correct and large..
We arrived at the YHA hostel in Alice Springs and checked into our 6 bed female dorm (that had 4 beds and a man)!
After scoping the establishment we headed off to the supermarket for supplies for the next three days at Uluru/Kings Canyon. We rushed back in anticipation of our trip to the Kangaroo Sanctuary! I knew about the Kangaroo Sanctuary from the BBC mini series called Kangaroo Dundee about Chris ‘Brolga’ Barns who set up a baby kangaroo rescue centre just out of Alice Springs. He nurtures the Joeys like he’s their mother as most of the mummy kangaroos have been killed on the road. There bodies are designed to protect their young even in the pouch where they tense there muscles to protect their newborns from trauma. 
Due to the BBC documentary, Brolga has received generous donations from around the world to help build and better his sanctuary. He raises most of the kangaroos to be a part of a mob and be released back into the wild together as kangaroos need friends and family to survive. He currently has 15 joeys in his care but only three are available for visitors and educational purposes as they will be staying with him at the sanctuary. The others are kept separate and away from visitors as they need to be released into back into the wild. 
This experience was quite possibly one of the happiest times in my life and I think it shows, all you have to do is look at the photos. Katherine, Jayne and myself were so excited it was ridiculous. Just getting to cuddle the tiny baby Joeys was amazing.
We made our way back to our coach transfer and headed home to the YHA for a late dinner of tacos and wine.
I checked my bunk as I was still recovering from night of the gecko. We headed off to bed exhausted from the night of kangaroo cuteness.
Thursday 18th August 2016
Trans Travels 