Day 15 - Alice Springs to Renner Springs

Day 15 - Alice Springs to Renner Springs

Alice Springs was extremely cold this morning, it was raining and really a sad day. Have to keep moving, I have a flight to take on Sunday from Darwin and there are lots of things to do on the way.




The camping in Alice Springs, very nice and reasonable

The camping however, very nice and with a great tavern next door to it. There was music on the night before; country music. I've never liked country music very much, but this time, I loved it.

There was a funny incident at the tavern. The musician wanted to sing some love songs, so he asked the audience who is in love... there was silence, even though there were many couples, so there I was, sitting on my own writing the post and I put my hand up. He said: 'Great, where is your girl' and I said, she is not here, I am travelling alone. He was surprised and said to all the audience: 'blokes, you should be ashamed of yourselves' And all the women started saying things to their partners, not nice things. Anyway, he asked what song I'd like him to play. I said: 'I've got a friend' from Carol King. He didn't know it. Then I said 'I will always love you' from Whitney Houston. He didn't know that one either. he said that he only knows country songs, so he chose one for me.

Alice Springs, from Anzac Hill.

On the way north, I crossed the Tropic of Capricorn (for the third time during this trip), but the sign was so nice that I thought it deserved a photo. do you see the band on the globe?

The sign at the bottom of the globe

Then a bit more north I saw these incredible sculptures that could be seen from the distance. Look at this.

The view from the road, 2 females on the ground and a make up the hill

A closer view

Look at the size of this thing!



Something else that amazed me was that the females were anatomically correct, it is usually normal to see anatomically correct male statues, but have never seen a female one.

Continuing the trip up north, I came across Wycliffe, where they claim is the 'Capital UFO' of Australia. Apparently there are UFO sightings here almost weekly. It all taken with a bit of fun.

The 'aliens' of Waycliffe



Now nobody can say I wasn't here

The shops of course are full of aline paraphernalia

The local press helps maintain the concept

And more from the press

I loved this one

Now, there are actually genuine 'aliens' in this place, there is a crab. yeah a crab! that lives here. Thousands of kilometres to the nearest ocean. this crab buries itself in the mud and so creates a humid environment where it can survive the dry season. It can survive up to a year without water of food. If you want to look it up, it's called the desert crab (Halthuisiana transversa).


And that's it. I pushed it very hard to get to Renner Springs before it got dark. A distance of approx 700km's. Crossed a few Kangaroos on the way, but luckily, none too close.



When I arrived to Renner Springs, I was greeted by the local geese

I did not have internet or mobile signal at Renner Springs, so I am doing yesterday post, today.

Day 14 - Uluru, back to Alice Springs

It rained all night. I had the bike inside the tent, and the tent is big enough to be comfortable, even during rain. However, it stuffed up my plans to visit the canyon.

The idea was to wake up early, go to the canyon (about 400km's) do a 3-hour walk and then head to Alice Springs before it gets dark.

But with the rain and a temperature of about 6 degC, I wasn't feeling it, so I snuggled a lot longer in a warm bed, and then made myself a hot chai tea and packup up a very wet tent.

I met a very nice retired couple from Adelaide while at the camp kitchen. he used to drive those huge road trains. I finally could get answers to all my questions:

1 - The actually have to drive the trucks, the computer that drives it automatically is a myth, it doesn't exist, all they have is cruise control

2 - The reason the wildilife is most dangerous at dawn is because they come to the edge of the roads to drink the water condensed on the tarmac and then drained to the sides of the road by its camber

3 - You can't avoid hitting the kangaroos, they jump at you from the forest and by the time you see it, you are already hitting it. They even hit the sides of the trucks, he told me that this is the reason most fuel tanks on the sides of the trucks are dented

4 - Tucks also hit cows sometimes. however, they make a lot of damage to the front of the trucks, about $80K of damage a hit. It they go over them it's even worse as they destroy air hoses and other bits under the truck.

5 - Trucks never try to avoid hitting the kangaroos, they just try to hit them with the side of the bumper, so that they move over to the shoulder of the road, otherwise they can get under and damage the air hoses, additionally, if they stay on the middle of the road, they become a danger to motorists, too.

Truckies appear to be a nice bunch of people, I had good experiences with them, they also help you overtake them by indicating when there is clearance to do it.

In fact most people had been very nice to me, almost everybody a pass, waves at me, so I started doing the same, which is interesting, because when the other driver doesn't wave back I get a tinge of rejection; funny, ha?

I lef the camping grounds from Ayers Rock with good memories. the camping is great and surprisingly reasonaby priced.

Great campgound, I recommend it. The best in Ayers Rock... and the only one

Emus in the camping

I saw an emu in the camping grounds and I wanted to touch it. The emu didn't accomodate, so I chase it for a while, he didn't appear too happy about that. Anyway, I didn't get to touch it, but I did get one of  his feathers, it is the most interesting feather that I have seen, it is actually 2 in one,




An emu feather. One root, two feathers in one.

It rained almost the whole way to Alice Springs, so I took it easy, as easy as going at 80-90K on 130K roads; better safe than sorry I thought. In any case, I was not in a hurry and it was just too cold to go too fast.

I made a few stops where there were tables with covers to prepare me another chai tea and recover some of the lost warmth. The weather wasn't helping

The cover on the side of the table is actually designed for a wood fire, but it also doubles as a good carpot (bikepot?)

A Camel Farm, can you believe it!

And here are the camels for the rides

I kept wondering why would you grow camels on a farm, and unfortunately I asked the question.

1st reason - for the tourist and the camel rides, which is a nice thing; then there is the second reason....



I am happy with the 1st reason, I am not so sure about the second, I think I'll pass.

Talking abou the 1st reason, I booked a camel ride. Interesting thing, the creature sits on the ground, so that you can get on top of it, then it stands with the rear legs first, so if you fail to follow the instruction from the guide to lean back as much as you can BEFORE it starts to stand up, you are in trouble; which was my case because when the thing started getting up, I was still wandering 'why does he want me to lean backwards?'

My ride

Hey! that's me on a camel. how 'bout that?   What's next?

Telling me to grab tight; by now I knew that I had to do what he says.

I am glad I did this ride, it was a great experience, the guide loved my bike and he explained that the bumpiness nature of the ride on the camel dissapears once the thing starts running. so he made the camel run so I could see. I didn't fall just because god is great. Then I agreed to him that when it was running it was exactly like on my Kawasaki GTR1400 tourer. I told him so, so that he didn't make it run again or did it do something else. By now I just wanted to get off the camel.

Before it sat down, I was told again to lean backwards, which this time I did, as much as I could. The camel bent the front legs first and if I hadn't leaned back, I would have fell on my nose in front of the camel; so I'm glad I followed the instructions this time.

Didn't you know that there are camels in Australia? They are not local, they were brought in first from the Canary Islands in 1840 , then more from India and Pakistan, they were usually brought with Afghani people to handle them. They were used for the construction of the telegraph and for the supply of goods to Alice Springs and other settlements. However in the 1920's most of them were released into the wild, where they soon established large herds in many semi-desertic areas of Australia.

After that experience and a hot chocolate at the camel shop, I continued the trip to Alice Springs, then I crossed one of the inland rivers and took a photo of this sign. The reason? You know the TV program 'Man vs Wild'? Bear Grillis tells us that whenever you are lost, you have to try to find a river and then follow it, this is because (according to him) all rivers end up on the sea, where there are people. This is however not true with the Australian inland rivers, they do not end up on the sea, they evaporate or dissapear into the ground, some rivers end up in the Simpson Desert, so if you follow one of those, you'll end up in one of the most remote and driest places on earth.

The inland rivers



Finally, arrived in Alice Springs, just before dark, it'll be a refreshing change to put up the tent in sunlight.

I met a lot of people during this trip and they ar all interesting in one way or another. I just had a yarn with the guard at the camping ground, he was born in the Nederlands and came to Oz when he was just 8. since then he has never left Alice Springs, he is near 80 now. he said he has a lot of family in his mother country but he never visited them, nor he'll ever will. he said he is happy in Alice Springs, he never visited any other place in Australia or the world.

I think that this is sad. On the one hand it is good that he is happy where he is. I guess this is a good thing. However, I believe that the world can be compared to a good book. However, if you don't travel, you just keep reading one page of this book and miss all the others.

Day 13 - Alice Springs to Uluru

Day 13 - Alice Springs to Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock)

This morning it was raining. The girl in the pub told me that it only rains about 2 days a year in here and today is one of them. Anyway, I take what nature gives me with a smile.

I checked the bike systems, as I do every morning for safety and I noticed that the tread on the tyres was wearing more on one side than the other. Have a look at this:




This is the rear tyre, seen from the back of the bike. See how the tread is more worn on the right side than the left?

This is because of the camber of the road; i.e. the road is higher in the centre and lower on the sides, this is so that rain drains quickly to the sides. the problem with camber is that the road is tilted to the left on the forward lane, the bike runs perfectly vertical, so the right side of the tyre touches more tarmac than the left; can you see that? With cars, this is not a problem, because the tyres are flat and the car just runs tilted to the left and people get used to it. But with bikes, the problem is that if you run long distances, then the tyres wear irregularly and eventually the bike starts to push to the right, rather than going straight; this can become dangerous. Additionally, if you try to turn right, it does it very easily, but if you try to turn left it struggles. My tyres haven't reached that stage yet. I will have to modify the way I ride to compensate this. In other words, I have to zig-zag and ride on the wrong side of the road whenever possible.

Left early to Uluru. I calculated 5.5 hours to get there. I should be there by 2PM. They told me not to leave before about 8-8.30, as there are camels, emus and large kangaroos on the route to the rock (all big).

Filled the tank in Alice Springs, I expected that because of the competition, prices should be reasonable and they were, paid $1.76/litre.

The Stuart Highway, the same one that I took from the north to get to Alice Springs is the same one I have to take now to the Rock, at least for the first 200km's. For some reason, it was fantastic coming from the north, but now going south from Alice Springs is crap, really badly built, it is bumpy and irregular.




Turn off from the Stuart Hwy to Uluru

Anyway, not too soon, I turned off after 200 clicks and the road was a lot better from there on. I didn't see any camels, but I did see a lot of cows next to the road. The vegetation became very sparse and the soil is very red and dusty.

After some time, I got really excited, when I saw what I thought was Uluru in the distance. I just couldn't believe that I can see it at 147km from it! It must be really huge! I took lots of photos.



'Fools' Uluru

Then it hit me... I'd seen hundreds of photos of Uluru and this mountain is the wrong shape, additionally, it doesn' appear like a rock, it's more like a mountain. Clearly, you could not see anything at 147km's. It's just too far. I felt a bit silly. I should have known that.

Trying to find mobile signal - unsuccessfully...

Then, at about 30Km's (a more reasonable distance) I saw the real thing!

 

Much closer, about 13 k's

Now it's the right shape and it is clearly a rock, with no debris on the sides.

I arrived at the Cultural Centre and I wanted to get in, but there were a lot of people around and I didn't feel confident to leave the bike with the tent and the sleeping bag outside (when I was with the team of bikers, one of them put his helmet on the bowser while refuelling, when he returned after having paid, the helmet was gone; it happens in Australia, too.

For these occasions, I had prepared a 'cage'. Have a look at this.

The 'cage'

Now I am ready to leave the bike anywhere! Good thing I did a risk assessment before leaving and I identified this risk early.

At the cultural Centre they told my that it was too late to attempt the want that I wanted to do, but I decided to attempt it anyway; if it gets dark, I just carry a torch and a jumper with me. Dingos? She'll be right, mate!

Here it is. This is where I parked the bike and the part where people climb it. This is what I wanted to do.

There you go! This is the climb, not an easy feat.

Then I saw this sign. Apparently the aborigines don't like people climbing it.

And this one

I didn't know that the aborigines saw as a very disrespectful thing to climb their sacred rock. After reading this, I could not do it and decided that I should respect the elders.

That....and...

The climb appeared very, very steep, with only a makeshift chain to grab,
I did not have the correct (grippy) shoes for something like this, I only had the bike boots,
It appeared very dangerous. The EH&S dwarf in my head screamed at me that if I do it, I am an idiot.

Anyway, the respect for the elders is reason enough not to do it.

The next option was to walk the whole perimetre of the rock, about 12km's (3.5hours). It was late, and it definitely will be dark by the time I finish, so I started quickly, without thinking too much.

When I say without thinking too much; I mean, wihtout thinking at all; I left without the torch and without water and without a jumper. Yes, I know...

I kept stopping at all the nice visuals and taking photos and taking it in, which made the walk a lot longer. Suddently I see a 'you are here' sign and I ahd only done about 1/3 in 2.5 hours. So I started to pick up the pace.

Obviously, after a while I was very thirsty and cold and couldn't see much in front of me (it was overcast). I found water (a gift from the aborigines, who know how important it is) and I used my mobile as a torch.

The views, nevertheless were impressive, I have no words to describe them, and the photos do not portray it either. You really have to be there and see it in person.


A great rock

The wholes in the rock are apparently made by a very strong marsupial

'wave' shape caused by water erosion



water cascading from above

I found this near the rock, I think it is ...... a..... bird! Yes, that's it a bird of some kind.



more waterfalls, see that while little thing in the middle? just above he centre, to the left?

It is this. I don't know if I did this photo to find out what the little white thing is or to brag about the power of my tele lens.

cascading water in steps

The aborigines say that this is the female part of the rock, I wonder what gave them that idea.



Arent't they cute? Come in, they don't bite!

Doesn't that look like a brain? I don't know. Since I lost my mind, I see brains everywhere, juicy brains. Maybe I am becoming a zombie; that'd be cool, we zombies are in fashion now and get the best chicks. - (see what I mean about losing my mind!)

Beautiful seats every 2 kilometres or so

The spanish speaking people out there will know why I found this funny.

A nice postcard. Amazing what erosion can do

An that's it. After that it was dark and my camera battery went flat anyway ( and so did my mobile, which was not funny at all)

While I was walking I was thinking that the bike is alone in a lonely carpark in the middle of the bush. Anyone could come with a truck and load it. At that moment, I saw a truck going on the road next to the mountain, this road only leads to the carpark. I was still 2.5 kilometres to the carpark, I grabbed a branch and, even as I was exhaused from the walk, ran the whole 2.5Km's to the carpark ready to defend my bike with the branch; to find in the end that the truck belonged to some teens having fun, they hadn't touch the bike. I just collapsed on the grass and stayed there for 1/2 hour or so catching my breath and enyoying the milky way.

From then on it was going to the camping site, which I found very reasonable at $18 a night, putting up the tent and refuelling the bike at $2.21/litre the highest so far, what a rip off.

Probably the most expensive bowser in Australia

The menu at the local joint

I decided to grill my own rump