Australia by Bicycle - page 7

Aerial view of Tennant Creek

The second town of some importance after Darwin was Tennant Creek at 1,050 kilometers. It was a milestone on the tour and I looked forward to seeing people, tourist sites, shops and a real restaurant. I planned to rest for a day in Tennant Creek. Anyone who expects a buzzing city with a flourishing night life will be disappointed. The shops and the restaurants were there, but Tennant Creek looks like a sleepy town. The birds in the trees made most of the town’s sounds.

Tennant Creek is a mining town. In the last century prospectors came for gold and quite a few were successful. Even nowadays gold is found but mines run at a very low profile. There are even still real old-fashioned gold diggers who make a living of the (little) gold they still find. I visited one, taking part in an organized tour. It was obvious that this man, who was very entertaining in telling stories and showing his mine and way of life, had adopted the tourist business as an extra income.

A stamp battery for extracting gold from the ore and a museum are in Tennant Creek. I spent a comfortable day off and was able to re-energize myself. The next day I was able to ride as much as 228 kilometers. To be honest not only because of a refreshed body and mind, but mainly because the wind had turned and I enjoyed a wonderful tailwind, but for one day only.

In Australia, bush flies can be a real burden. They go for anything that has a taste of moisture: they crawl in your mouth, nose, eyes, and ears. And they do this very persistently. This can be so terribly bothering that many people wear a net around their head for protection. As long as I was cycling, the flies did not bother me much because of the wind. Maybe that was the only advantage of the many head winds I had in the first half of this trip. When I was resting in Tennant Creek, however, I needed one very much, so I bought a net. Later while cycling, the net turned out to be convenient to use during rest stops along the road.

Interesting links referring to the region:

There is also a complete daily log of this tour, but only in Dutch.