Tennant Creek

We spent two nights at Tennant Creek, which is all we needed and more than some people think is necessary. It is an incredibly dry and dusty town. It was hot but it was a dry heat I used to love humidity but I'm not sure I do any more.  We stayed at the Tennant Creek Caravan Park, which I definitely recommend. The sites are predominantly dirt or gravel, which is understandable as there isn't enough water to spare to keep grass growing, but the owners were nice and the sites are big enough for our van.

We visited the Info Centre but it really seemed like the staff couldn't be bothered making the effort to help anyone, which was disappointing as I would have liked to get some more information about the area and the places we were heading to. It's amazing how different staff can be in these places. Some of them are so helpful and wonderful to talk to and others are simply ticking the box, or barely even doing that. We did get photos near a big termite mound though, so that was something, and there was all sorts of old mining equipment scattered around the Info Centre as it is based at the old Battery Hill mine.

The owner of the caravan park recommended we go to the Mary Ann Dam which is 5km north of town. I'm glad we did as it was a very pretty place with lots of nice shaded grass to sit on. There is all sorts of bird life there, including peacocks, guinea fowl, hawks/kites and chickens and domestic ducks. We watched a Kite glide in and land on it's massive nest in a tree overhead, while staring down at us. It was a very majestic sight. We had a lovely couple of hours walking, the kids playing on the (very basic) playground and exploring downstream from the dam wall.