The Tanami: A road trip through Central Australia -

19th – 23rd May 2025

The Tanami Road follows an old cattle droving route from the MacDonnell Ranges just north of Alice Springs, stretching north-west across the Tanami Desert for 1,035km (643mi) to meet the Great Northern Highway near Halls Creek in Western Australia. This road takes the traveller, station hands, local indigenous people travelling to their communities and massive road trains through some of the most remote country in Australia. While Federal and State governments are working on sealing the road there are still long stretches of gravel road often with bad corrugations, potholes and washouts. After passing the community of Yuendumu there is no fuel, food or water available to tourists for 760km. Should it rain the road will be closed and the traveller stays put until it opens again. Travelling these outback roads is no casual undertaking.

Monday

We plan to complete the crossing in 5 days. We’re fuelled up, water tanks full and I think I’ve got enough food for 2 or more weeks (bit of overkill there!).

All good for the moment. The skies are blue and the forecast is good.

These tree-less hills covered in spinifex started the day for us.

Tilmouth Well – hmmm. We try to support all the little roadhouses and small towns we pass along the way, so dropped in here for a snack. The area in front of the shop was full of litter, the toilets were filthy and the snacks were all deep-fried, ready-made food. Not easy to give support in these cases.

The road so far is sealed – easy driving. We’ll cover about 300km today – a big day for us as we like to stop to stretch our legs and swap drivers, then have plenty of time to enjoy the destination.

Tonight’s camp is a flat area beside a windmill. Luckily it wasn’t a windy night.

We’re now in flat country and the stars stretch from horizon to horizon.

Tuesday

We’ll cover another 300 or so kilometres today, but first just 22km on from last night’s campsite is Yuendumu, an obligatory refuelling stop for us if we’re to make the distance to Halls Creek.

Despite arriving half an hour after opening time, there wasn’t a soul in sight… and the self-serve fuel pump wasn’t working. Not a good sign. About an hour later, the storekeeper finally appeared and casually explained they were running low on fuel and waiting for the tanker to arrive. For a brief, uneasy moment, we imagined being stuck here for days. Then, with a shrug, he pulled out a key, pressed a few buttons, and got the pump going. Relief. Our long-range tanks hold 145 litres — and we made sure to fill them to the brim. With normal motoring (ie not 4×4) that should take us about 1000 km – but, there will be 4×4 driving happening.

Relieved to have fuel in the tank, we wandered into the grocery store — and couldn’t believe our eyes. There were stacks of eggs, when just days earlier there hadn’t been a single one to be found in the entire town of Alice Springs! To our surprise, it turned out to be a remarkably well-stocked little store, with everything from fresh fruit and vegetables to televisions, hardware… even tutus. Out here, you really do learn to expect the unexpected.

The sealed road disappeared all too soon. The bulldust cloud ahead of us is from a slow-moving road train, but not slow enough to overtake, particularly when you have no visibility once directly behind it. The road trains make a mess of the roads – we soon had big corrugations which forced us to drive slowly.

Travelling slowly allowed us to enjoy the countryside even more. I know it’s hard to believe this is the desert, but the green you see isn’t grass, it’s spinifex. And just look at all those termite mounds – kilometre after kilometre of them.

Catching up with our road train when he’d stopped to check his rig we had a bit of a chat – as one does when you’re about the only people you’ll see all day. He’s carrying concrete powder to a gold mine at The Granites. He’ll deliver today, drive back to Alice tomorrow and return with another load the next day. He told us there are 3 road trains doing this constantly – that’s a lotta concrete!

Tonight we camped at a roadside pullover ignominiously known as ‘Camel Toe Quarry’. There was a dam nearby, some of the prints in the dust could have been from camels, but most were cattle.

Wednesday

Big excitement today – we cross the border into Western Australia.

Sadly, neither the WA nor NT governments seemed to share our excitement about their border. The only marker was a cluster of empty bottles and a weathered, handwritten sign left behind by a traveller from who-knows-when.

The border sign was leaning up against the rubbish bin.

I just couldn’t believe the colours in the sky highlighting the spinifex at tonight’s campsite.

Thursday

Today’s adventure took us to Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater — or as the exclamation goes, “that place from the horror movie”. For the record, even though the plot was loosely based on real crimes, NONE of the events in the unfortunately named Wolf Creek horror film happened here. Thankfully I haven’t seen the movie and would very much like to sleep tonight without imagining serial killers in the bushes.

Obviously NOT our Wolfe Creek! This road is sealed!!

The section of the Tanami Road we travelled today was in very poor condition. Deep potholes, washouts, thick bulldust, and heavy corrugations made for a difficult and slow drive. Even after turning onto Crater Road, the road surface remained rough and challenging.

Wolfe Creek Crater was formed approximately 120,000 years ago when a large meteorite struck the earth. It is the second-largest meteorite crater in the world, measuring 876 metres in diameter with an original depth of around 120 metres.

It is known as Kandimalal by the Jaru aboriginal people of the district. There are several creation stories explaining the crater. One describes two rainbow serpents meeting here, forming two of the local rivers. One of the serpents came out of the ground, forming the huge crater. Another Dreamtime story involves the evening star getting too close to the crescent moon and burning up, falling to earth, creating an enormous explosion and flash followed by a dust cloud.

The crater sides are steep, rocky and uneven. A 4km walking track around the rim couldn’t be ignored so, despite the terrain, we completed the circuit and took in the remarkable views of this ancient geological feature.

This is indicative of the track, and yes, I did grizzle about it a lot. And while I’m still grizzling, let me assure you that spinifex does penetrate hiking pants and feels like needles digging into your skin.

But the flowering spinifex is just so pretty. When the wind blows it ripples like water on a lake.

Friday

Our last day on the Tanami. The corrugations, bulldust, washouts, etc, etc continued for a while longer before the lovely smooth sealed road once again appeared. This is cattle country. Travelling these outback roads there is usually a lot of road kill, mostly kangaroos. Interestingly we’ve seen very little road kill and when we do see any it’s mostly cattle – the properties aren’t fenced.

Between some States and some areas of Australia there are quarantine borders to prevent the spread of agricultural pests. The only ‘contraband’ food items remaining in our pantry were onions and garlic. The regulations with these are that they must be peeled, hence my onions and garlic are now peeled ready for quick meal prep.

Meeting the Great Northern Highway is the end of the Tanami, but it really wasn’t a photo opportunity! We drove on to Halls Creek where we refuelled, filled our water tank, and bought some fruit and vegetables. There’s no where to stay in Halls Creek so we headed out of town to Sawpit Gorge.

Such a pretty gorge with a deliciously cool creek to take a swim.

Totally relaxed after the long, dusty Tanami.

Our campsite at Sawpit Gorge. Believe it or not another free campsite we had all to ourselves for two nights.

And so our Tanami adventure comes to an end. In summary, it’s a long, often lonely journey with few distractions along the way. The beauty out here isn’t in flashy landmarks — it’s in the remoteness, the ever-so-subtle shifts in the landscape and colours of the desert, and those endless horizons that invite you to never stop exploring.
It’s a road that reminds you how big this country really is, and how small you are within it.

The Tanami: A road trip through Central Australia