Day 24 - 27 Stuart Hwy

It might not seem long when one is on the road, to have passed 23 days camping under the Milky Way, passing one wilderness then another.  Finally, we reached a city that boasts Woolworth, Coles and the like, it really was a cultural shock to see all those traffics on the road.  Although Alice Springs is not a major city by any stretch, but nevertheless, it has many traffic lights...!  And strong mobile phone signals, and most of the trappings that city folks are taking for granted....buildings that are more than 2 stories high one after another, argh!!

After whiskering our friend to the airport, for her to meet civilisation, we whipped through the downtown of Alice in no time. While having a light lunch at the War Memorial, overlooking those wonders of human habitations, we listened to stories by other 4x4 travelers, the challenges that they've ran into not even 24 hours ago, with their smiles glistening with satisfaction.

Soon we have to leave Alice for the wonderland ahead. And we set our wheels rolling north.  This was going to be black top for the next 1500 Km.  We decided to leave some of the more challenging side tracks for the next time, until I am more confident of the mechanical well being of the front wheels....that's until we reach Darwin.

Stuart Hwy is the only major highway linking Alice to Darwin, and for that matter, to Port Augusta in the south, where it is a mere 300Km to Adelaide, the nearest metropolis.  Soon aftere leaving Alice, we reached the highest point of Stuart Hwy, on this flat continent we have, it isn't much, 600 m above sealevel, a boulder like height in the Himalayas.  But Stuart Hwy has a very rich history, born out of WWII - the allies counter-offensive against the Japanese, but we'll get to that as we move north.

Very shortly, we also crossed the Tropic of Capricorn line, as we moved into the tropical parts of Australia....believe me or not, there was a temperature difference of 2 degrees before and after the line..... and pigs do fly!!!

The day wore on, we encountered quite a few "Road Trains", these are mammoth trucks, with 3 or 4 trailers in tow, up and down this highway.  To overtake these, requires patience and sometime co-operation from the truckie, fortunately, most of them are quite friendly.  But then, again, I was quite happy to chuck along at 90 - 100 Kph, taking in the scenery.  Not that there is much to see, with pretty barren lands on both side, boredom breeds fatigue.  So sometime the overtaking of a road train, provides a bit of adrenalin rush, but it is not a mindless thing to do, for sure.

Our first stop after Alice Springs, 420 Km away, is the Devils Marble.  The marbles are round boulders, weathered into shape over millions of years. due to the unique geological characters of the area.  10 years ago, I ran into this place by accident, but that one night of experiencing the gloriously red sunset over the horizon sitting on one of these boulders, followed by a night show of remote fire rings, caused by bush fire burning in the distance, had forever marked me. 

This time was no exception, the sunset was equally glorious.  All except the wind was ferocious, and there were a few dingos around, foraging for food scraps.  It is common knowledge that campers should  never feed feral animals food or to leave them anything to search for, but unfortunately, few people still do. 

This is the reason why they wander about in the camping grounds.  In the end, we strapped the tent between the car and a camping table, and took all food containers inside before retiring. And my new pair of clogs from Alice went inside also, as I learned from Dalhousie Springs couple of weeks earlier.  There was no big bush fire during the night, and the Milky Way came through as surreal as ever.

You are invited to view David's photo album: 2011 4x4 Outback trip ( Stuart Hwy ) 2011 4x4 Outback trip ( Stuart Hwy ) Sep 8, 2011 by David View Album Play slideshow Message from David: Long slog on Stuart Hwy for 2 long days If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=Australia.dt&target=ALBUM&id=5796338801440652945&authkey=Gv1sRgCN3Mx-GQr_HMrQE&feat=email To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account.

Sunrise at the Devils Marble was equally glorious, and there was no more howling wind.

The drive to Tennant Creek, was uneventful.  Tennant Creek is a "major" town on the highway, connecting another highway to the east is Mt Isa, a major mining town of Australia.  There is another story to be told about my first outback driving at Mt Isa some 32 years ago, after two of us missed a flight out of the town on a late friday afternoon, I'll leave this for another day.  I wonder if how many can still remember TAA, the other half of the flying kangaroo.

We passed Tennant Creek after a brief stop to fuel and have an ice cream in the searing heat.

After 2 more uneventful days of fatigue inducing driving, we rolled into the famed Katherine Gorge, this is tropical Australia proper!  But at September, the wealther is also dry and temperature in the early thirties.  We camped at the famous Katherine Gorge.

This persistent little thing kept harping for  a feed, which we would not give for obvious reason

Instead of the doing the same boat cruise down the Gorge, we decided to explore the rims of the gorge by walking to different vantages points on the plateau atop.  We started early to avoid the heat, which climbed to 37 C in the afternoon' Following the mud map provided, we walked up and down the southern side of the gorge and had the most captivating views of the Gorge.  It was 19Km of foot-works before returning, for a big dip in the river. This is the only time of the year when it is safe to swim in the gorge, as the dry seasons stopped the salt water crocs invading the upper reaches of the Katherine River.  Assuming of course, that the rangers had captured and sent all the remaining ones down river, it is a case of no news is good news!

After two nights at Katherine Gorge, we moved northwards to visit Edith Falls, another point on the Katherine River. An after lunch swim, which was senational when the heat was 35+, and water refreshing.

Then we headed for the most famous and the largest Natioanal Park of Australia,  the UNESCO World Heritage Listed, Kakadu National Park.