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The end of the year has rolled around already, hey! The older I get the quicker time seems to go, which is hardly fair in my book. The good thing about another year ticking over though is that work shuts down for a few days and that means its time for some more Feral travel. Last year we had such a good time on our trip up to the Red Centre that we decided to head back again this year for a short break, although with not a lot of time off work it meant that the holiday started off with a fairly serious road trip. Melbourne to Alice Springs is the kind of road trip that most people may do once in their life, I reckon I've done it at least thirty times for various reasons. With time being at a premium this time we didn't muck around on the drive up, if you had the time you could spend months meandering your way to Central Australia, we spent about thirty hours! So as you would imagine this is hardly going to be a definitive guide to travelling by road to Alice Springs, it's just another self absorbed post for my own memories really. All that said I'll try and make it a little readable incase anyone stumbles on to it.
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| I love a road trip! Early morning on the Stuart Highway south of Coober Pedy. |
The first day started off with me doing what I spend most of my life doing, working. Yeah there was no early start to beat the traffic today (that sounds like it came straight from my old mans mouth). After finishing up all the loose ends at work Sam picked me up and we pointed the ute north, leaving the northern suburbs of Melbourne just after lunch time. Now just because it was going to be a quick trip didn't mean that it had to be boring so instead of heading through Adelaide we decided to go up via Mildura, a slightly longer drive but a little more pleasant I think. Thankfully not a lot happened on this drive so I haven't got a lot of Feral misadventures to add a bit of colour to the post. That afternoon had us tracking up the Calder Highway to Mildura, past endless fields of swaying golden brown wheat. It might sound really dorky but I love driving along checking out what the farmers are up to while I listen to the Country Hour....fuck I'm old! Bypassing the centre of Mildura we headed west along the Sturt Highway and the South Australian border. After a quick search of the ute for any fruit that we may have been trying to smuggle in, and a long chat about my ute, the quarantine officer waved us through and we were in South Australia, hey hey our second state!
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Heading up the Calder Highway past the paddocks full of wheat.
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Heading into South Australia along the Sturt Highway, I think this is a left over from when they had the GP...but don't mention the war!
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| The Murray River was flowing a banka. |
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Now I could crap on about the great meal we had at some out of the way pub, yeah I could but it would be bullshit. Nope, we went to the travellers standard that night, Maccas at Renmark kept me gong that night. Leaving Renmark our route got a little convoluted as we zig zagged our way across to meet the Princess Highway near Crystal Brooke. This section of the drive is really interesting for me though, with the road intersecting with both the Mawson Trail and the Heyson Trail more than once it brings back plenty of memories and I no doubt bored Sam shitless as I crapped on about old adventures. After a taste of the outback we arrived back in cropping country at Burra, with the sun now sinking below the horizon the main interest now was watching the farmers hurriedly trying to finish harvesting a bumper crop before some forecasted un-seasonable rain was due to arrive. The rolling hills were alive with the bright lights of the harvesters and we were sharing the roads with all the grain trucks, the balmy night was hazy with dust getting thrown up by all this activity.
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The Midnight Oil cottage near Burra.
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Back in cropping country near Burra.
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| As the sun slipped further below the horizon the paddocks were lit up by hundreds of harvesters. |
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Once on the Princess Highway we were back on very familiar territory, heading north now our next stop was for fuel and a drink under the neon lights at a Port Augusta truck stop. Heading north out of town on the Stuart Highway it was getting close to the bewitching hour and I was starting to wilt a bit, it had been a fairly solid day for an old bloke! So anyway we tracked our way north, apart from the kangaroos I was now also keeping an eye out for a good spot to pull up for the remainder of the night. Just after midnight near the small town of Pimba I found the spot I'd been looking for...a scenic lookout....yeah we may as well wake up with a view! After orientating the ute so we wouldn't cop the morning sun in our faces we were soon asleep, enveloped by the silence of the outback, oh and the sound of occasional road train rumbling past in the distance.
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The tiny farming town of Gulnare, in the twilight.
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| The view from my bedroom window this morning...well the front window of the ute anyway. |
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Yesterday had been a solid day so I was in no hurry to get fired up this morning, but with the sun came the flies and eventually they found us which signalled that the snoozing was over. Staggering out of the ute the view was indeed scenic, we were on a bit of a plateau and in the distance below us was a vast salt lake, with the surrounding spinifex and salt bush lit up in a golden light in the early morning. Bypassing the bright lights of Glendambo we headed to the even brighter lights of Coober Pedy for breakfast. We were now driving into the desolate northern parts of South Australia but thanks to a couple of tropical cyclones drifting across the continent from the north west we were heading into a build up of threatening looking clouds.
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It looks like Mars, it must be Coober Pedy.
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| The further north we went the more the clouds built up. |
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By the time we crossed the Northern Territory border in the early afternoon we had already past through a few short sharp showers but from the border to Alice Springs the downpours became more frequent and more severe. On our trip up here last year I'd mentioned that it felt like we were visiting the tropical Red Centre and this trip had the same feel about it, with huge black clouds, frequent downpours and humidity that felt like we were drowning in it. Pulling into a wet Alice Springs just after 4pm we checked in and headed up to the room for a well earned shower. Feeling suitably human again after that we wandered up to Anzac Hill to watch the sun set, watching the storm clouds around the surrounding ranges I had a feeling that this trip may have a few surprises in store for us.
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Crossing into the Northern Territory, no need to watch the speedo now.
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Hmmm.
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Proper grown up rain now!
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| The scenery goes up a notch almost as soon as you cross the SA / NT border I reckon. |
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The Dirt.
We travelled about 2300 kilometres from Melbourne to Alice Springs (it's slightly shorter if you go through Adelaide). All the roads we travelled along on this trip are sealed and in good nick, no problems for a normal car. It is definitely quicker to fly up but where's the fun in that? Oh yeah, once you get here if you want to explore a bit you'll need a car at the very least and probably a 4wd and the costs of hiring in the territory are prohibitive I reckon.
Relevant Posts.
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| We've arrived just in time by the look of the clouds. |
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| Alice Springs from Anzac Hill. |
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