Day 3 - Coober Pedy to Alice Spings

Coober Pedy, South Australia to Alice Springs, Northern Territory - 700 kms, 7:30 hours.

At 7 and a half hours, it is the shortest leg. This is to keep me fresh for the longest leg that comes next. Add to that an extra hour I will gain when I enter the Northern Territory. Also, Alice Springs is the ostensible destination for this trip though in reality it is just a way point. The scary part? No free wifi from this point onward.

I wake up in Coober Pedy knowing, for once, that I don't have to get out on the road as quickly as possible. So I decide to take in a few sights and have a leisurely meal at some restaurant. The first stop was the Opal Museum. I rock up at 11AM and find out there was a 10AM tour that I have missed. The next one is at 2PM which I cannot hang around for.

So I just wandered around and had a look at the exhibits. There were a few hotels available that were underground but I finally settled for one over ground. The museum showed me what one of the famed underground residences in Coober Pedy would look like. You can see the digging marks on the walls.

  

In the hot weather of Coober Pedy, living underground makes sense. It is cool all day and night though you won't be sleeping with the windows open. One of the houses that tourists can visit is Faye's underground home.

Unfortunately, Faye's house was closed as the sign said. I don't know if this is permanent but it was permanent enough for me as I had to set out by noon. Never mind, I thought, I will grab some lunch at that pizza place I passed on the way. Closed again! Never mind, let me go to John and Mary's Greek Tavern (are they the reason why every place here seems to serve yirros?). I come across a sign on the door saying it is closed for the next few days. Drat! I give up and go to the same place as last night - the Outback Grill. I try Kangaroo yirros this time. I skip the beer as I need to keep my head clear for the drive ahead. Driving out, I leave behind Coober Pedy and its landscape of dug out piles of dirt of the opal mines.

Out on the road, I notice that even the roadbed seems to have taken on the red colour of the earth here. Random Thought: The car has memory to remember the settings for the seat, steering wheel and side mirrors. Would it kill them to include the rear view mirror as well? How hard can it be to motorise it? I see the usual signs warning about livestock on the road. Among the other warnings it also says 'TIERE AM WEG' which is probably German for 'Drive like a vegan' or more likely the same as what it says in English.

Driving down, I see a strange contraption by the roadside - a couple of solar panels and a couple of small structures. They seem to appear at regular intervals. Curious, I stopped at one.

The small building tells me what it is - an Optical Fibre Cable Repeater Station. It has the logo for Telecom (as Telstra was known in the past). The solar panels seem to provide power for the repeater. And real estate for a bird's nest.

The optical fibre follows in the footsteps of the historic Overland Telegraph Line. This was a telegraph line between Port Augusta and Darwin built back in 1872. This was replaced by a microwave link in the 1970s. They were followed by coaxial cable powered by diesel generators. The latest incorporate solar panels to power an optical cable network.

Getting out of the car also helps me appreciate the texture of the red outback I see flashing past from the car. Even among the rocks and dirt, there are small shoots of green succulents.

It was a relatively shorter trip of 700 kms. On a full tank, I get 600+ kms and on the wide open spaces at higher speeds, I should get much more. Feeling reckless, I decide to make the trip without refueling, the 10L can of petrol in the back giving me some reassurance. I soon reach the Northern Territory border.

I instantly gain 1 hour and 20 kmph in speed! The speed limits here are 130 as opposed to 110 elsewhere. Woo hoo!

It isn't long before I reach Kulgera. Though I was bent on not refueling, I thought I would stop for a milkshake or something. I was avoiding coffee so I can sleep early for the long drive ahead. No milkshake, so I had to settle for a Magnum instead. It is NT so the roadhouse was a bit interesting with bits of machinery strewn around including a railway crossing signal.

Over the last day, I would occasionally see the famed road trains but I was too busy to stop and photograph them. Now that I have the time, where the hell are those road trains? Finally, I spot one. I planned to overtake it, put some distance between us, pullover and then photograph it as it rolls past. I overtake it only to discover two more road trains further ahead. I soon overtake these embarrassment of riches and pull over.

The road trains come rumbling past I get a few pictures. The first road train rumbles past. The second one honks! What does it mean? Hello? Wanker? Cheese? After the third road train goes past, I get a brainwave to take a video of overtaking a road train. I go ahead. This time I see a road train parked by the roadside. I pull over and take more photos. I then start trying to get the video camera rigged up using the new windshield bracket I bought. Travel Tip: If you are using the video camera after a long time and a bracket that you have never used, try it out at home instead of doing it on the road under time pressure. The parked road train zooms off. I soon get the video camera rigged up. I have to mount it upside down and hope I can turn it around in post-processing. I soon catch up with the road train and take a video of the overtake. Soon I catch up with another but the video camera is flashing some message which I won't read at 130 kmph.

Overtaking a road train can be pretty hair raising. They are about 50 metres long. You have to get to the wrong side of the road and go faster than the road train. They are doing nearly a 100kmph. If you are doing 130 kmph, it should take you a scary 6 seconds on the wrong side of the road just to catchup with the front and much more to build enough distance to get back to your side of the road. In that time you have traveled nearly half a kilometre. If the road is dusty or it is raining and you can't see very far, it is much worse.

I will have a closer look at why the video camera stopped working overnight but for now, no more road train videos. I was getting the hang of overtaking them now and it was no longer hair raising - at least for me. And now that I could not take videos and I already had photos it was getting a bit ho-hum. Why are there so many road trains on the road?

The low fuel warning pops up but I am pretty close. With a 10L petrol can in the back, I keep cruising. I soon reach my hotel. When I was booking hotels, I just looked for rooms around the $100-125 mark and did not look too closely at what I was booking. But this turns out to be the Alice Springs Hilton. Nice! Usually, when I reverse into the parking space, I have to be careful not to bump into the front door. This time, I have to get down and walk the longest distance I have walked in the entire trip to get from the car park to my room. I had no idea that I had so much stuff in the boot and I had to make the long trip multiple times.

I have a long day ahead of me so I quickly unpack. I also go out and fill up. For dinner, I go to the Overlander's Steakhouse and grab a beer and a kangaroo steak. I turn in early, ready for an early start. Travel Tip: Chuck a few dry tissues into your wet pack. It will prevent it from getting damp. Replace tissues as you go along.