Australia BACK of BEYOND - a DRIVE on the MOON
Written: Nov 28 '00 (Updated Nov 28 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: open spaces
Cons: care - not for inexperienced
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| SMITHSWOODSIDE's Full Review: Australia |
A brief look at three Outback Tracks for tourists to consider
In earlier reviews we have traveled the bitumen highways from Sydney to Adelaide and Adelaide to Darwin. They were easy ones. Too easy, weren’t they. This time we are going to rent a four wheel drive and go off the highways and follow some of the worlds most desolate tracks through some of the worlds most desolate regions.
Safety depends very largely on our own commonsense, learnt from the experience of others, many of whom paid with their lives. We will carry food and water, enough for a fortnight in addition to any expected to be needed. The vehicle will carry four spare tires and numerous parts. An elaborate first aid kit and at least two radios, at least one of which not needing the vehicles battery. The vehicle will be a manual and in superb condition with a winch and tire pump. We won’t be carrying anything more than we have to so the weight is kept to a minimum.
Last but not least we will carry an additional 60 gallons of fuel, ordinary petroleum, not LPG as this is more readily available. There will be absolutely no bathroom facilities but there will be a shovel. Lack of the usual modesty is a small price to pay. Everyone will sleep on the ground, no tents, in special Aussi designed bedding made for the purpose - rain or not, not that it is likely to rain.
Okay, all ready and suitably “bathroomed”, we head up the bitumen out of Adelaide due North. We will leave the bitumen behind after about four hundred miles so sit back and take it easy. Even have a snooze if you like because we saw this bit of road last time.
There is something special about a four wheel drive rocking gently away up the highway.
All of a sudden, the vehicle slides around bumps up and down and shakes at the same time. The passengers wake in fright, being nearly torn from their seatbelts. Its okay I yell, we have just turned onto the Birdsville track and I am picking up speed. I hate this part, exclaims spousy as usual. No hurry for us, you say looking and sounding just a little desperate.
But what I am doing is finding the optimum smooth speed over the corrugations, the ripple effect in the road caused by the suspension of the modern vehicle. Just when it seems the vehicle is going to fall apart everything smoothes out. We cruise along close to fifty miles per hour.
This is one of Australia's most famous outback tracks.
However, it barely qualifies as a true track anymore because of the regular maintenance, its graded once a year, and the heavy traffic, as many as four cars per day.
The Afghan camel drivers used to be common in these parts, and the old train was named after them - The famous Ghan train from Port Augusta to Alice Springs, now replaced with a no-fun modern one.
There is plenty to see along here including the ruins of a date palm plantation at Lake Harry, and the dog-proof fence. Built to keep dingoes off grazing lands, this is the world's longest man-made barrier, three times the length of the great wall of China. There are also several bores along the route that tap into the Great Artesian Basin, bringing water out from deep beneath the earth at temperatures approaching boiling point.
The track crosses the border into Queensland, and finishes in the town of Birdsville. Birdsville's main drawcard now is the annual picnic races held here on the first weekend in September each year. The event attracts thousands of visitors and media each year, with rooms at the pub booked out months in advance.
So thats our first, popular and easiest track.
The Strzelecki track is quite different. It starts in a remote corner of New South Wales and heads through the granite outcrops and arid scrubland of Sturt National Park and crosses many sand dunes to reach Camerons' Corner (where Queensland, NSW and South Australia meet). It offers a chance to see the vermin proof fence constructed over 100 years ago to control rabbit plagues, before turning north through the Strzelecki desert.
Bald bluffs and low mesas mark the landscape. The original trail over the sandy dunes was pioneered by a cattle rustler. Having made off with an entire herd of cattle, he needed to find a new track south to get the cattle to market in Adelaide without being caught!
The Strzelecki track officially ends at the tiny town of Innamincka, located on the banks of Coopers Creek in South Australia. The track north from here to Birdsville is named after the historic Cordillo Downs grazing property it passes. At one time this was the largest property in Australia, running over 80,000 head of sheep. The majority of this track travels through the harshly beautiful Sturt's Stony Desert. As a reminder as to just how harsh this country can be, the ruins of Cadelga Homestead, to the north of Cordillo Downs can be inspected. The track finishes once again at the Birdsville Pub (Hotel).
The last track we will deal with is the misleadingly named Gunbarrel Highway, certainly no highway in the usual sense.
It is notorious for bulldust, dust as fine as talcum powder that gets into absolutely everything. A trip along here is very lonely indeed, with about one vehicle per day, sometimes one per week. That vehicle can often be a road train, a semi/tractor towing up to four large trailers. These huge vehicles destroy the track, so it is usually better to drive next to, rather than on it.
It is one of the longest and toughest overland tracks in Australia, and travels almost 900 miles through some of the most remote parts of the continent. The "highway" cuts through the Gibson and Great Victoria Deserts (yep, the Great Victoria Desert is in Western Australia, not in the state of Victoria. This is what happens when you name everything after foreign dignitaries).
The landscape varies greatly along the route as it passes through saltbush scrub, gibber plains, sandy desert, and even the occasional stand of desert oak around watercourses. Wildlife is plentiful, and includes dingos, kangaroos, emus and many varieties of desert-dwelling birds, including budgerigars.
After very rare periods of rain, the desert blooms with wildflowers and greenery - amazingly beautiful but mud and washouts can leave the track impassable for several days! The track passes through Aboriginal lands and several Aboriginal communities, but access to these communities is generally restricted. Permits can be applied for at Police stations.
Those with the vehicle, spares and stamina to make the distance are rewarded with a glimpse of Australia rarely experienced, even by those who live here. The magnificent Kata Tjuta (Olgas) and Uluru (Ayers Rock) mark the end of the track.
So there we have it - probably the nearest thing to a drive around the moon that can be accomplished on this planet.
However, the stillness, silence and clarity of the sky and stars make a bit of inconvenience well worth the effort.
Tourists, and Australians for that matter, are better advised to join professional tours of these areas.
Much more likely to survive to tell the tale!
Recommended:
Yes
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