TK Adventures – February 2021.  

Part 1 – Alice Springs to Darwin

Over the next three months, February, March and April, the TK Adventures are the notes from my travel diary when I was filming with What’s Up Downunder – our journey from Alice Springs to Darwin.

There is quite a bit of reading here so I thought it would be a good idea to present it to you over the next couple of months. I’ve also included personal photographs in an endeavour to share with you, just how spectacular this part of Australia is.

Let the journey begin….Alice Springs to Darwin.

It seems as though I usually begin my travel diaries from an aeroplane at 30,000 feet, soaring across Australia heading to another marvellous destination, this time was no different except for a few little hiccups!

At 4.15am on a very cold winter morning, my trusty iPhone alarm woke me from a beautiful slumber. I climbed out of my nice warm bed, jumped in the shower, dressed, applied my makeup, and headed to the airport. By 6am, I’d arrive at the Gold Coast airport ready to fly to Alice Springs via Melbourne and Adelaide (certainly the long way round)! Now comfortably in my allocated seat but still on the tarmac, the lovely Captain announced we would be arriving into Melbourne 10 minutes ahead of schedule, great news I thought to myself! However, shortly after this announcement his dulcet tones once again graced the aircrafts intercom advising the air conditioning system was broken and ground engineers would need to repair it before we could depart! Everything was rectified within about 15 minutes and we were on our way. We touched down in Melbourne only to find the aerobridge at Gate 2 was not lining up with the cabin door. After much juggling back and forth and another 15 minutes of waiting, the aerobridge was finally put in position, thank goodness. These slight delays would not have impacted on my travel plans so much if I had not have had two connecting flights to catch before arriving into Alice Springs. I disembarked the aircraft in Melbourne, only to find I’d miss the flight to Adelaide and although I could be ‘bumped’ onto another flight two hours later, this would mean I’d miss the Alice Springs connection, which happened to be the only one scheduled for the day!

To the airlines credit, they arranged for me to fly directly to Alice Springs with another airline however, that would be tomorrow, lol…in the meantime, they booked me into a motel close by with their compliments. So, I began my journey to the red centre held up in a motel room at Tullamarine, waiting for tomorrow to arrive so I can get to Alice! I always pack a sense of humour when I travel so I soon turned this little hiccup into a positive and used the opportunity to catch up on some work emails and phone calls.

As soon as I touched down in Alice Springs and joined the rest of the Whats Up Downunder crew who had arrived the day before! We literally hit the ground running. Even though we’d be based in Alice Springs for a couple of days, our filming schedule was jammed packed as there were lots to fit in on this road trip.

First stop was the Old Ghan and National Road Transport Hall of Fame, this place is absolutely amazing. Normally, you would need to allow yourself a whole day, maybe two just to take in everything.

My co-host Macca, explored the old Ghan Museum whilst I traversed their Hall of Fame. The charter is not only to remember the great trucks, buses and vehicles of the past, but recognise the contribution of the men and women who drove and lived with these great machines of the past.

I was delighted to come across a display poster of the world’s fastest jet powered truck, Waltzing Matilda. Matilda, as she was affectionately known, was once owned and driven by my Dad, Ray Kernaghan.

Matilda was a part of our family from around 1981 until 1986, during which time we traveled to most parts of Australia and New Zealand proudly showcasing Matilda in all her glory.

The Truck Museum in Alice is home to over 300 vehicles from fully restored vehicles to rustic wrecks, with the oldest being a 1909 Caldwell Vale, whilst the newest vehicle at the time, was a 2015 Gold Kenworth. The volunteer staff are a wealth of knowledge and keen to answer any questions. I can’t begin to tell you just how special this place is and if you have not been there yet, you must check it out.

After a whirlwind tour of the Transport Museum, we hightailed it to Alice Springs Reptile Centre to check out some of the cold blooded creatures. It has the largest collection of reptiles in the Northern Territory, which includes the Perentie Goanna, Frill-neck Lizards, Thorny Devils, large and small Pythons and venomous snakes including Inland Taipans, Brown Snakes, Death Adders and Mulga Snakes. Our guide Rex, was a wealth of knowledge and I can’t recall ever being to a place like that where you can get up so close and personal to these cold blooded creatures.

The MacDonnell Range Big 4 Holiday Park was our camp for a few nights whilst we explored all that ‘The Alice’ had to offer. I had a lovely chat with Brendan Heenan, park owner and manager and I was amazed to hear the park grounds used to be market gardens some 30 years ago. After a big flood however, the water became very salty and the gardens never fully recovered from this so Brendan decided to turn his market gardens into a Caravan Park and as they story goes, the rest is history!

This park is the most awarded tourist park in the Northern Territory and is renowned for its beautiful surroundings, its friendly staff, its comprehensive facilities and of course its famous pancake breakfast held every Sunday morning all year round! Situated in the picturesque surroundings of the MacDonnell Ranges the park is just 4.5kms south of Alice Springs. They have all of the modern facilities plus accommodation options to suit all budgets and travelling styles, it’s the perfect destination when visiting Alice Springs.

The Park had undergone some massive improvements since I last visited there some 9 years ago, which incidentally, was one of my first film shoots as a presenter for What’s Up Downunder. The new heated pools are a real hit with kids and adults, particularly during the winter months. There are several camp kitchens dotted around the leafy park and with plenty of activities for all the family to enjoy an overnight stay would not be long enough.

My accommodation for the next two weeks was the New Age Oz Classic Caravan. This 23 ft van is luxury on wheels! It had all the welcomed features such as a roomy ensuite with separate shower and toilet, and you know how much I love that! Along with a front load washing machine, comfortable queen bed, compact dinette, full size fridge and microwave along with ample storage both inside and out. The temperature dropped down to 1 degree overnight, so I was so incredibly grateful for the reverse cycle AC. The bright modern decor was refreshing and I particularly liked the extra large windows which gave the interior of the van a very open feel.

Next morning, I got a little taste of what life would have been like for our heroic explorers Burke and Wills, during their expedition from Melbourne up to the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1860. I went camel riding at Pyndan Camel Tracks located just 10 k’s out of Alice Springs! Our guide, Marcus, was as laid back as his camels. His love and respect for these amazing four legged desert nomads was evident right from the start! The one hour trail ride took us through picturesque, undulating country, located in the vast and ancient MacDonnell Ranges. The countryside was looking spectacular after the recent winter rains the area had enjoyed just a few weeks earlier. The serenity and colourful landscape combined with my camel, Pixie’s hypnotic amble, made the whole experience very enjoyable. Marcus was very informative however, he didn’t chat all the time during the ride, I personally thought that was great. It gave everyone the opportunity to soak up the experience and the spectacular countryside. I could have easily kept heading west following the sun to the Simpson Desert.

Next day we hitched up our caravans as the cast and crew made our way north along the Stuart Highway to Wycliffe Well, about a 4 hour drive north of Alice.

Wycliff Well is Australia’s number one town for UFO sightings. Many of the locals and visitors to this little outback town are convinced extraterrestrial activity frequently occurs there. This attracts people from all over the world trying their luck to see first hand, if there really is life out there beyond the Milky Way!!

The local service station doubles as the on site office for the Holiday Park situated next door and has an interesting display of UFO paraphernalia along with numerous newspaper reports documenting the various unidentified flying objects sighting.

The Park has plenty of well established trees, a good camp kitchen and a menagerie of animals ranging from the resident donkeys to lots of bird life for all to enjoy.

Whether you’re a believer or sceptic or simply travelling between Alice and Darwin, it’s definitely worth stopping to check out Wycliffe Well Holiday Park.

Only a short drive north from Wycliff Well, is home to the Devils Marbles which are some the most famous Australian rocks, right up there with Uluru and the Olgas.

Contrary to many of the guide books and brochures about the Australian Outback, they seem to feature a picture of just 2 Marbles however, Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve is 1802 hectares in size, which means there are lots of marbles there!

I was not at all surprised to see fifty or so Caravans and Motorhomes, taking up their position down a side road near the Devils Marbles, in readiness to witness the brilliant colours of a Territory sunset. Like many outback experiences, a photograph doesn’t do it justice, you have to see it to believe it.

Daly Waters is just over 500kms from Wycliffe Well and was our next overnight stop. What a great place to be on the 1st July, Northern Territory Day! This means, it’s the only day of the year in any Australian State or Territory where you can buy firecrackers to celebrate the occasion. I was a bit excited about cracker night as I hadn’t witnessed this since I was a kid growing up in Albury.

As our convoy pulled into the Daly Waters Hotel Caravan Park, I could hardly believe the sea of caravans, motor homes, tents and camper trailers already set up for the night.

The Daly Waters Pub is another one of those iconic Australian landmarks which you have to include on your bucket list. The interior of the pub is loaded with memorabilia from previous patrons who have had the pleasure of sitting up to the bar and having a few coldies. I am talking, ladies bras, bloomers, G-strings (and I am not talking guitar strings), boxer shorts, caps, currency from all over the world and peoples signatures, (mine included right near Aussie legend Peter Brock). Every square inch is covered, walls to ceiling. The beer is cold and the food is fabulous. I recommend the reef and beef, fresh barramundi and mouth watering steak!

It was an added bonus for us to enjoy some great entertainment from my mate, Tom Maxwell who had a residency performing there for ten weeks during the tourist season, what a gig!

My co-host, Macca and I, jumped up on stage to share a few What’s Up Downunder ‘behind the scene stories’ with the campers who were staying there. I also sang a couple of songs with our multi talented cameraman and all round great guy, James Manson, he can play a mean guitar.

The fireworks were set down to go off at 9am and it sure went off with a bang! There were Tom Thumbs, Throwdowns, Bungers and Catherine Wheels shooting off in all directions, lighting up the night sky. For a moment I thought the local servo (Petrol Station) was going to steal the show and go up in a blaze of glory but luckily, the action was contained far enough away, allowing us all to live to see another day.

As I drifted off to sleep that night, I could hear the remains of some left over fireworks being let off in the distance, a lone barking dog and some bird life protesting about the disturbance. I remembered thinking to myself, how Australian, you gotta love it!

I hope you have enjoyed reading Part One of my journey from Alice Springs to Darwin. I’ll look forward to sharing more with you next month in my TK Adventures.