Day 16 - Renner Springs to Katherine

Today I took it easy. Got up late, after a cold night with rain, I needed the rest and I am not that much in a hurry anymore.

I had a look at the famous 'Renner Springs' It wasn't really much, I was led to believe that this place is worth a look, so I made a punch to get here. however, the night was terrible, as the camping grounds are just next to the highway, and the noise of the trucks kept waking me up. Not nice, especially when there are thousands of free miles just behind the road house. Why didn't they put the camping there? Beats me.

The 'spring' was just a puddle of dirty water where you can't swim. I should have stopped at the last camping grounds, about 45kms south of here, where the camping was away from the road.



The locals were very friendly though

Then on the way to Katherine, I found lots and lots of termite mounds. These things have been here for donkeys' years, who knows how many zillions are there. In fact we are at war with them, we keep destroying their mounds to make roads and they eat our houses.

I wonder what happen if they claimed the land, as they have been here for more than any human. While I was wondering that, I saw this and I stopped.

The first fella I met was very friendly, he wants to learn our ways and be like all of us. he just wants to fit in. Although he is very slow, he moves about a metre every years or so



I also met this one, he asked me 'Take me to your leader' I was wondering if this is Julia...

And what else would you find on the way, specifically in Larrimah? Well, the Pink Panther of course!

The Pink Panther is in Larrimah

The I found this at the Hi Way Inn. What do you do when you don't have the best beer? well, you can always have the biggest!

A collection of interesting drinks in this place

Waht did I say?

And the keep coming...

No they don't...

Then just about 27km's from Katherine (by the way, the locals read it ending as in 'fine') I found one of the best places so far, I really needed this place. I am talking about Mataranka. Thanks Craig for your suggestion, they are really the best.

This place has a small pool of thermal waters (31 degC) and the water is the cleanest you have ever seen, the water purs from the depths at millions of litres a day, and it comes at the temperature of the basin, which is about 50 to 100 metres down the earth.

Arrived at Elsey National Park, the location of the pool

informationa about the park

What it means is that if you encouter a croc, you should measure it's snout and if the ratio is 4:1, the it's ok, it just might bite you, but if the ratio is 2:4 then you are probably already dead. if this scares you, then you should have never left the big smoke to start with.

Arrived at Katherine, just before it got dark

Got greeted by the locals

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 12 - Barkly to Alice Springs

Today I got up very early, the earliest since I started this trip. The reason? The group of people I was hanging out with, is a bunch of go-getters and they start the day early (not like me). Anyway, I am not complaining, that's a good thing.

Early I also got an SMS from Mary celebrating our anniversary (not really an anniversary; this we celebrate every month, the 17 is the day we started as a couple). Hopefully we'll never stop celebrating this every month.

I find cats everywhere, after a discussion with the attendant at the Roadhouse, I find that there are so many ferals cats that they are killing all the local fauna. They have even called the ARMY to kill them. Makes you wonder how well organised the cats really are!

In the beginning there was a price of $10 dollars for anyone that killed a cat, all you had to do is bring the tail. There was so much money given away that they had to reduce it to $5.

The team, just before leaving Barkly

...and the fairest of all, deserves a picture by himself.

We started the day buying petrol at $2.11 a litre; then headed to Threeways with no obstacles, in fact no trees, no hills, no even curves ont he road. About 1/2 after leaving Barkly, we encountered the first 'dangerous curve ahead' sign. In fact it was barely perceptible and I wouldn't class it as a 'curve', but I can understand why they put this sign; after having the steering wheel (handlebar, in my case) locked in the same position for 1/2 hour, it is possible you might miss it and keep going straight.

The trip would have been inconsequencial if it hadn't been for one of the bikes breaking down. I was the last one on the group and I saw the bike in front of me (a Beemer) slowing down. It developed a grinding noise withint he shaft drive (grinding noises inside a mechanical device is not a good thing, take it from me). So we struggled to Threeways and there we called road service and organised a tow to Darwin. Poor Kevin had to spend the last 1000kms in the cab of a truck.

Threeways, in case you wonder, is the junction of the Stuart Highway (the road between Darwin and Adelaide, half point is Alice Spring) and the Barkly Highway (the one we were in).

Arrived at Threeways

The Threeways roadhouse

At Threeways we refuelled, had a coffee and said our farewells, as I planned to go south to Devils Marbles, whereas the rest of the team would go north to Darwin. 

 

I didn't say it, it is written on the sign. Anyway, now you know where it is

My plan was to spend the rest of the day at Devils Marbles and then see the sunset and the sunrise there, before heading back to meet the team somewhere else near Darwin.

I left them and I went pass Tennat Creek, which is a town where the majority of the population are aborigines. anyway, nothing special about this town, so I just went through it.

The entrance to the Devils Marbles National park

Devils Marbles is an incredible place, it's just about 130km south of Threeways and nex to the small town of Wauchope (I couldn't even find this town in the GPS, but it does exist, I saw it).

Devils Marbles is a place with giant boulders that are precariously piled on top of each other. I had a lot of expectations about spending a lot of time in this place.

When I arrived, my jaw just dropped. they were fascinating. They did not appear natural, but the creation of some crazy excentric multi-millionaire; but not, they are actually created by some weird natural processes.

Our first Marble, they lend themselves to a lot of funny caricatures

There! that's what they look inside

Where did I put my hat? Ah, there it is!

Lets put this one over...here!

Hi Mum! Look what I did!

Look Mum! another one! Ain't I smart!

Ooops! I think I broke one!

I might have been impressed, but after about 1 hour of walking aroung I got a bit tired of them and I couldn't imagine spending the rest of the day there, so I grabbed my map and looked at the time I had left. A crazy idea crossed my mind 'How about I make it to Uluru and the Kings Canyon?' This was not part of the trip because is spot on in the middle of the continent, but with such good roads and the lack of roadkill in the NT, I went for it!

So i left at about 1PM and planned to reach Alice Springs just about 1hr after sunset. this is a calculated risk, as driving at night on in Australia is a bit suicidal. however, on the way here I noticed that there were no roadkill, wich suggests that there are not so many animals and also because I had a very expensive set of LED floodlights that I purchased just for occasions like this. So I went.

Beautiful, but time to leave

From there, this is what the road to Alice Springs looks like the whole way, just flat as far as the eye can see

What did I say...

Welcome to the dark side...

A little rest, flat, flat, flat...

The road to Alice Spring is just magnificent. I havent seen roads like this neither in Queensland or NSW. It had a limit of 130km/h and it was definitely designed for speed. Just a few years ago there was no speed limit on this road. It is straight, smooth and the curves are long, and soft, almost sensual. I loved it! so I proceeded to program my cruise control at 130 and I set for a relaxing trip and exhilarating trip (and legal).

However, the firs time I had to refuel, I made the numbers and I realised that I had spent about 25% more fuel than when going at 110. I tried again a few more kilometres and a made the calulation again, to make sure, and the value came the same, I was getting a lot less mileage per litre; so I bit the bullet and (biting my lips) reprogrammed the cruise control at 110kmh. One of the factors helping this decision was that at every fuelling stop, petrol is at about $2.10 to $2.20 a litre.

On the way I stopped a the 'centre of Australia' marker, as placed by the explorer Stuart. Interesting, and lots, lots of flies, but I expected this, so I had my akubra with a net around it. It worked like a beauty.

On the way I stopped at Tea Tree and called a few camping sites in Alice Springs, the prices varied from $38/hr to $12/hr. Lucky I called first and I found the cheapest one.

I arrived in Alice Springs at about 8PM. No incidents, other than lots of cows on the sides of the road and some of them killed by trucks. I wonder... if they spent so much money on such a good road, why didn't they put the icing on the cake by placing some fencing on the sides of the road? Go figure. Einstein said once that there are only 2 infinite things, the universe and human stupidity, and he wasn't so sure about the universe (or something like this). This just makes the road dangerous, when it would have been so easy to make it safe.

Here is where I am right, the point where the centre of gravity would be, if there was one for a continent

Half way from 3ways to Alice



This is the monolith marking the centre of Australia, according to Stuart

 I know the hat with the net looks stupid, but if you saw how many flies there are here, you'd do the same.

This is where Alice Spring is. This is where I am right now.

Tomorrow, I'll get early and go to Uluru (Used to be called Ayers Rock). I am not sure if there will be interne there.