Alice Springs, Northern Territory to Mt Isa, Queensland - 1170 kms, 14:00 hours.
Coming up was the longest leg of the trip, so I started early. For me, that is 9AM. As usual, I filled up on fuel last night so I am ready to hit the road. As I am carrying my gear, including my camera on the long walk to the car park, I come across the resident peacock. I mean a real one, the bird. But this time, he has his tail spread out. I passed it a few times yesterday but it wasn't as aroused. Now it goes the full monty AND I have my camera handy.
Heading out of Alice Springs, along the way I saw the old locomotive from the Ghan. This is a diesel locomotive from the 1970s. The Ghan is the fabled train line stretching from Adelaide to Darwin right through the middle of Australia in a North South direction. It is 3,000 kms long. It used to be called the Afghan Express and then shortened to the Ghan. Why Afghan? It was after the Afghan camel drivers who came with the camels to traverse the vast Asutralian deserts back in the 19th century. Many of the camels were released and today, form a feral population of about 300,000 after a program of culling.
Before leaving Alice Springs, I had to make a pilgrimage to the Uterne solar power station. I tried finding out its location on google but the satellite photo showed nothing. It is off Norris Bell Avenue but looks like the google satellite photo has not been updated for years. Drive down Norris Bell Avenue and turn right at the Transport Hall of Fame. You will see a long bumpy road heading towards the solar station. It is all a bit low key.
There is a so called viewing platform but it is at ground level and you can't see much. Would it hurt to have a platform a bit higher? Uterne is the word for a bright sunny day in the local Arrente language and Alice Springs has many of those sunny days.
In the foreground are the rectangular tilted solar panels which are probably part of the original Uterne project which is rated at 970kW. In the background are the square panels of the Uterne II project that is rated at 3.1MW. Between the two, they produce almost 10GWh of energy in a year, enough to power 1,200 homes.
The sun being where it was, all the panels were pointing away. There does not seem to be another vantage point.
A bit of a drive down the road out of Alice Springs and there it was. Promised Land. I had only heard about it but now I see it with my own eyes. NT's no speed limit road! After a hallelujah or two and falling down to kiss the ground, I strap myself in.
The speed limit for most of NT was 130 kmph so that is what I set my cruise control to. On long drives, it gets a bit hard to constantly keep my eye on the speedo and stay on the optimum speed so by now, the cruise control is not a crutch, it is a real leg. Speed is so easy to get used to. I bump up the cruise control... 140... 150... and finally 160. Occasionally on a straight stretch I put my foot down to go faster. I pushed it up to 180 and then 200. I started getting a bit more comfortable and pushed the cruise setting to 180. On straight stretches, I pushed it a bit faster. I pushed it to 220 and finally topped out at 235.
As usual, I came across a few road trains but cruising at 180 kmph, it was easy overtaking them and usually I did not even take it off cruise control - just zigzagged my way around them.
A four tanker road train was a piece of cake.
Overtaking a slow moving campervan wasn't even worth writing home about.
Lest you think it was all plain cruising, the warning signs about livestock on the road kept popping up. So did the rattling over cattle grids. So did the occasional kangaroo warning signs. As I got closer to Airelon, there was even a 'Watch out for people' sign. Finally, about 60kms from Barrow Creek, the speed reverted back to 130 and dropped further. I stopped at Barrow Creek to refuel.
A short distance from Barrow Creek, there it was again - the no speed limit sign! This continued except for occasional patches outside small towns. It all came to an end near Tennant Creek but not before an incident. It is a common sight to see road kill on the road but almost as common is crows picking at it and flying off as you approach. But this time... THUD! A bird strike! Looks like they can fly off when I am at 110 kmph but at 180 kmph my Costanzian assumptions were no longer true. They warned me about livestock, they warned me about kangaroos, they even warned me about people but no one said anything about birds. At that speed, it can easily shatter a windshield. Very shaken, I continued. A sideways glance could not spot any large cracks across the windshield and I kept going.
It started to rain and on cue the speed limit dropped back to 130. I soon came across a side road to the Devil's Marbles. As it was raining and I was in a hurry, I stuck to the main road. Soon the side road rejoined the main road and I could see it wasn't much of a detour. So I turned around and went down the side road.
The Devil's Marbles (Karlu Karlu in the local Aboriginal languages) are an area strewn with giant granite boulders. It was raining but I managed to take a few pictures, some of which did not have water droplets ruining the photo. There was a small shelter with free wifi, a godsend in this remote area. I did not avail of it. Also, it was a good time to check for damage from the bird strike. Nothing. Nada. It must have been a glancing blow and the sound must have got amplified in my startled head. Then I spotted a small white twig stuck in the rubber between the roof and the front windshield. I tugged at it and it turned out to be a crow feather. I hope the owner was OK.
I stopped at Tennant Creek and filled up. I went googling for a restaurant but Tennant Creek was a small place and the few I could find were all shut. I grabbed something at Red Rooster instead. I continued and soon reached a place called Three Ways. It is the junction between roads leading to Tennant Creek, Darwin and Mt Isa.
This is roughly the halfway point of my trip. There was no fuel for a long distance but that was not my main worry. In an effort to stay hydrated, I drink a few bottles of water or sports drink. In spite of being the proud owner of an XL sized bladder, the constant hydration meant I had a more 'pressing' issue than running out of fuel. So finally on the way to Mt Isa, I had to overcome my Sheldonian hangups and relieve myself without being ensconced amid four walls. It was raining, it was windy, a hitherto empty for miles road suddenly had a vehicle whizzing past but I could not care less. I just stood there and let my worries dribble on to the grass.
I was running out of fuel and decided to fill up at a small town. But looked like the nearest Premium petrol would be in Mt Isa. I never had fuel problems and even always found premium petrol and this was the first time I had to resort to normal petrol. I just filled 10L - enough to comfortably get me to Mt Isa. I got to Mt Isa a lot earlier than I thought - those high or non-existent speed limits really helped. Once in Queensland the speed limit had dropped to a glacial 110 but it was OK. It was raining quite heavily and the road was pretty wet and I wouldn't be going very fast anyway. The hotel looked a bit seedy from the outside but the inside was pretty nice. I was too lazy to go out and look for some dinner so for the first time I dipped into my food collection and had a Kitkat bar. The room came with breakfast so I could hold out till the morning.
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