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Published: June 11th 2006
Well the decision has been made. I will not have time to get all the way round Australia so I am heading north.
The change in the weather as I headed north was amazing. In just a few hours the skies cleared and the sun was out. It was also not long before the houses, trees and everything else started to disappear. I have hardly made a dent into the northward journey but already the landscape is changing and looking very different. On the way up I could see myself heading for a very large storm. With the land being open and barren I could see for miles. As I hit the storm the rain came down like you would never believe. It was so hard that I lost sight of the car in front of me. But as soon as it had started it was over and the skies cleared again.
The further north I went the towns got smaller and smaller but everything else got bigger and bigger. The distances between towns certainly got bigger and so to did the vehicles on the road. Lorries have been replaced by massive land trains. Each one capable of pulling 4 or 5 full size lorry trailers. I passed a "Land Train Assembly Site" which was a huge tarmac field where they would assemble these monsters before they set off on their journey across the country.
On the way I got stuck behind a very large vehicle moving someone’s house. Now I've seen this done on TV where they float the house down a river on a barge but never on the back of a lorry. This lorry had over 100 wheels and covered both lanes. In front was a single police bike riding on the wrong side of the road pointing to oncoming traffic to get off into the ditch. Now faced with a head on collision with a police bike or heading for the ditch I know which one I'd do. When I finally managed to pass this moving house I was able to make up some time. Although the speed limit is 110 nobody seems to do less than 130. It wasn't long before I was heading for the ditch to get out of the way of an oncoming large vehicle. I'm not sure what's going to happen when the two of them meet a bit further down the road!!
I made it to the city of Port Augusta and soon discovered that the cities have also shrunk. Port Augusta is smaller than Tewkesbury. It's a very old fashioned little town. All grass has now been replaced with sand and gravel and the locals are now aboriginal. They seem to be very scary people. They are probably lovely but looking almost Neanderthal in their appearance and seem to spend most of their day walking round in groups drinking.
I'm staying in a motel as there are no backpackers in this town. It's my own room with a TV so I can't complain. Well actually I can. The TV can only pick up one station so I had to endure 2 episodes of Fawlty Towers followed by two episodes of Heartbeat!!
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Geoffrey Head
non-member comment
Walkabout Revisited
Phil, I think you'll find the reason the aboriginals look so pissed off is that people have been trying to wipe them out for the last 300 years, added to the fact their burial grounds and sacred places have been dug up to mine opals and uranium and their most sacred symbol, Ayres Rock has people clambering over it 24/7 just adds to the general feeling of disillusion. Just watched 'Rabbit Proof Fence' about the forced removal of aboriginal children in the fifties - very uncomfortable watch. Hypocritical sod that I am, having said all this, if I had a chance to see Ayres Rock, I'd be shinning up it like a gecko - what an awesome place. We're all thinking of you. Geoffrey, Andrea, Megan, Jodie and Linus