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The Crossroads of Australia
Entry 61 of 85 | show all | print this entry |
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Ahhh Port Augusta, such a decidedly odd place that makes you slightly uneasy. We opted to camp a little out of the main town, and followed a sign to a "Historic Water Tower", which turned out to be one of many underwhelming monuments signposted from the highway. Its lack of glory did have an upside in this scenario however, meaning we could camp up undisturbed for the night.
440 km for the day, breaking the 2000 km mark, up to 2411 km - good going we reckon, but nothing to the next day, hitting the Stuart Highway, aka the track up to The Alice, with only little roadhouses for stopovers. Bring it on!!
Our target at the start of the day was 1221 km which we ate into slowly but surely. Our progress was truly marked when we pulled through Pimba (gateway to Woomera - site of US and UK rocket and atomic bomb launching!) and out again, losing all radio coverage, having to revert to the trusty tapes. At first this was a novel experience, playing each one through, savouring the music that we would never voluntarily listen to under normal circumstances. Some of them really began to grate after a few days though - only the legendary ones lasted the course!
Anyway, the next stop up the track was Glendambo roadhouse, which welcomed us with the tongue-in-cheek sign:
WELCOME TO GLENDAMBO
Population:
Sheep: 22500
Flies: 2000000
Humans: 90
This was the last place before Coober Pedy (legend precedes it), so we refuelled and headed further up the track, passing Lake Hart on our right, a large saline lake that shimmered white under the sun from all its salt. It looked incredible, but photos never do things like this justice. It was surely enhanced by all the barren scenery surrounding it, so lifeless its completely indescribable, yet again. Even when you see it, its not really tangible, how long it goes on for.
We passed countless dead kangeroos, being mauled by giant birds, a couple of people walking the track (??) - they didn't thumb for a lift anyway, and a further couple of people cycling it. The few cars, vans, caravans, and 4x4s that we did see all gave friendly waves of acknowledgement to us - kind of an outback cameraderie of sorts, or maybe to reassure themselves that other life did exist out there.
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