Our first stop was at one of the old Overland Telegraph Line Stations. It is a rundown place now, but it used to be one of the stations where messages from down South would get passed through, and then people in this station would transfer that message through to the next section of the telegraph line. There would have only been a few men that lived and worked there, and I’m sure they would have gone a bit crazy as it is super isolated from any civilization. The fridge was the coolest part – it was just a huge hole in the ground with a door and roof on it. Having the food far enough under the surface would have apparently kept the food cold enough…perhaps this helps to explain why people didn’t live very long back then! At this stop, we were also told the story of a backpacker that went missing several years ago about 13 km from this station. Apparently the girlfriend who was with him says that there was a trucker (who apparently was known as he had been convicted of many crimes in the past) who stopped to ‘help them’, and he took the boyfriend and to get away, she ran into the woods and never ended up seeing what happened – this ‘likely’ story ended the trucker back in jail, and the girlfriend who apparently showed no remorse or sadness in court got off with no questioning.
Upon arriving in Daly Waters, we took a little tour of the town’s sights. The tour took a total of a minute and involved driving down the street to check out the local tennis/basketball court, the shutdown police station, and the gym that has one chair in it and no gym equipment. After making a U-turn, we arrived back at our restaurant/accommodation for the evening – The Daly Waters Pub. To say this place had character is a bit of an understatement. Everywhere you looked there were souvenirs from past visitors, including underwear (that I’m pretty sure had not been washed), bras, driver’s licenses, old hats, license plates, etc. – you name it, it was likely hanging on the wall. It also had the biggest hamburger buns I’ve ever seen – it took you about five bites before you reached any burger! One of my favourite parts of this eclectic pub had to be the misspellings everywhere you looked. I originally thought it likely started with one mistake and then became a bit of a joke, but after meeting some of the locals there, I’m pretty sure it was all fairly authentic!