Ideally this blog post would be illustrated. There are many photo-worthy things happening on the roads out here. But alas we are always so focused on getting from A-B (remember the distances out here), that so far I have no photos to go with this story. Let’s call it a work in progress. One day we will remember not to pack the camera cases away in the depths of the troop carrier, will keep a camera up front with us, and will add photos. Maybe.
For now, I will paint a picture with words, no analyses or solving the problems of the world, tonight, dear reader. Just a ride with us in the front of the Toyota, along the 2500 kms we’ve done since May 1.
For the map-inclined, our journey has roughly been: Alice Springs-Irrunytju-Blackstone-Yulara/Uluru-Jameson-Patjarr-Tjirrkarli-Cosmo-Newberry. With more to come!
TRACKS
We see lots of tracks of course. When the road gets rough you’re meant to stay in the tracks of the last car that went through. It’s the best way to avoid getting bogged, and a helpful way of deciding whether to go through or around the puddles.
Also from the car you can see camel tracks in the sand fairly easily. For the smaller animals you need to be travelling by foot to see their tracks.
At Patjarr I would go for a walk along the road each morning and see how many animal tracks I could spot. One day, back in town, a nine-year-old girl was walking behind me. She suddenly said “Emma- have you been going for walks out on that track?” I asked her how she knew, and she pointed to my shoes’ imprint and said “I was out there this morning, and I didn’t know whose track that was. Now I know it’s yours!”
CAMELS
Cheeky things. They like to sleep on the sand after the sun has warmed it all day. They’re never in a hurry to get out of your way, either. They tend to amble along slowly in front of the car rather than move to the side. Last night, we came across a big mob on the road after dark. I don’t know if it was fright or if we’d interrupted some serious cud-chewing, but as they slowly jogged along in our headlights, there were some impressive drool-strings blowing out behind them.
GRADERS
What long, solitary hours those grader workers spend making sure these roads are passable. There are so many long roads out here, which people rely on for clinic visits and food supplies, that you can’t really drive for more than half a day without passing one.
Whenever I pass one I think about a day in the life of one of these men (so far they have all been men).
Sometimes there are two graders a few hundred kilometres apart, so I imagine them meeting halfway, camping together to at least have some social interaction in the evenings. Because of the distances, and the slow speed at which they travel (about 20ks an hour when they’re actually grading), they usually don’t make it back to a town. Hence they are fully self-contained, travelling with a caravan and a vehicle in case they need to get somewhere in a hurry.
Usually you will pass this rough graders’ camp before or after you come across the grader. But on one track, a very rough disused track (I was surprised to see it being graded) we came across a site that for some reason I found quite exciting. It was a grader towing a caravan, towing a ute. While it graded. How cool?
I was reminded of China Mieville’s The Iron Council, although I’m sure I was reading too much into it.
I like to imagine the grader drivers with a dog or two. For company. The graders go so slowly, the dogs could run alongside sometimes, or sit up in the cabin at the driver’s feet. And a little comic relief and puppy-distraction never goes astray on long drives.
DINGOS
After camels and birds, dingoes are the next most numerous, at least that’s the view from the road. One day, on the same old track where we saw the travelling grader road show, we spotted a dingo up ahead. They are usually fairly shy, but this one wagged its tail and ran towards the car. It seemed genuinely excited to see us, and when we passed it slowly it started running behind the car.
Was it someone’s pet? Out here in the middle of nowhere? It got shy and ran off when I opened the door, which is probably just as well because I might have had to adopt it.
We still don’t know what that tail wag of recognition and the car-chasing was about. Maybe prior experience had told it that sometimes the white Toyota animals camp along there and leave food scraps in their wake.
CAR WRECKS
Everybody has probably heard of the famous car wrecks strewn along the tracks of outback Australia. There’s a great one near the SA/NT/WA border, an old panel van, painted like an ice cream van and brightly displaying the words “Ice cream. Now open.” If you’re doing the eight-hour drive from Alice Springs to Irrunytju, that wreck appears just at about the time you wouldn’t mind a roadside stop and, say, an icecream.
INTRIGUING SCIENCE-Y STUFF
Around Warburton, we kept passing this big mob of utes, trucks and caravans with “Terrex Seismic” logos on them. I had no idea what it was all about but it was an exciting distraction after numerous hours on the road.
Anyway someone pulled us over and said “We’ve got men on the road for the next 20ks, so just take it easy and slow down past the equipment”. The “equipment” was one very long extension lead lying along the road, at various points plugged into something stuck into the ground. That’s the technical definition, anyway. Plus there were fancy looking trucks with satellites on their trays and metal legs that held them firmly into the ground.
It was all very intriguing and hard to keep my eyes on the road ahead.
I didn’t really know whether “slow down past the equipment” meant “..in case someone steps out in front of you” or “…because that extension lead is plugged into machines buried underground that might explode if the vibrations get too full on”. Anyway we didn’t explode, nobody got hurt, and I just found this link on Terrex’s website: http://www.terrexseismic.com/html/terrex_seismic/seismic-exploration-australia.html
“The “Reflection Seismic Method” is a geophysical technique used to map in 2D or 3D, an image of the earth’s subsurface. Reflection Seismic is used by Oil & Gas, Coal Seam Gas, Minerals and Coal Exploration and Production companies to develop a clear understanding of subsurface rock structure and other geologic properties. “
Fabulous. I’ve read a thing or two about coal seam gas. Not impressed. http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47808
So far, these are some of the visual highlights from our driving adventures. My words won’t do them justice, alas, but soon hopefully I will add photos.
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