Stuart Highway: The real attractions

In the middle of the great Nothingness there are some real attractions. They are few and far between, but that makes them even more attractive.

Devil's Marbles

Devil's marbles: This is a rock formation that looks like huge marbles piled on top of the other.For me they were mostly memorable because of two events: 3 Italian guys had climbed the rocks (which is forbidden), were flashing their willies around on top of the marbles (which is weird) showing them amongst other people to the local ranger who had happened to come by (which is just plain stupid). The ranger got terribly upset, made them come done and gave them a lengthy lecture about being disrespectful - all of which was a great evening entertainment for me. But when I was looking for a campsite (after the ranger had left, of course) I got another companion: a wild dingo kept following. He did not attack me and always kept his distance, but still it was sort of weird. Also, what would the dingo do at my dinner time? I decided to stay at the official camp ground which made the dingo leave me. But as soon as I left camp the next morning, the dingo was on my heels again... Seems I have made a friend there.

Fantastic hot springs

The towns: Between Alice and Darwin there are just 2 towns that are worth being called town: Tennant Creek and Katherine. There is not really much to see there but after cycling for 5 days with no shower and only packaged noodle soup these little towns with swimming pools and a supermarket can be a real attraction. I already started having hallucinations about showers and fresh fruit! In Tennant Creek I ran into 2 Mormon missionaries - these guys are everywhere! I decided to be nice and told them that I had recently been to Salt Lake City and how much I had been impressed by it. We talked for about an hour and I learnt a lot about the hard life of a missionary. And when I cycled out of Tennant Creek a car stopped for me. To my big surprise my 2 missionary friends came out and gave me tons of food - thank you so much! In both towns I stayed at a commercial campground - and that is pretty luxurious after camping in the bush for a week. There usually is a swimming pool, barbecues and a camp kitchen - and I ate lots of kangaroo steak and lamb sausages...

Katherine gorge National Park

Tropical Australia: Around Katherine the area becomes tropical. It does not look like that from the road - there you just realize that there are bigger and bigger trees and sometimes even palm trees. But Katherine has the first permanent river and around the water the vegetation is quite lush. And to my big joy there are hot springs! And to my even bigger joy they are free! So no more dust and grime - I was going to bed clean! There are also some famous National Parks like Katherine Gorge and Litchfield. All this means that you can go swimming amidst the most beautiful tropical setting: Waterfalls, palm trees, kakadus! Just beware of the crocodiles!

I with a Japanese cyclist

What else happened? I met about 7 other cyclist going the other way fighting a headwind. All of them were male and most of them Asian. I could even impress two Japanese guys with my little Japanese vocabulary. I always stayed on the Stuart Highway except for Litchfield National Park where I cycled on 42 km of dirt road in order to avoid backtracking. What can I say? I am not made for dirt roads..... Still, no bike problems whatsoever. No puncture, no broken spoke, no nothing. I love my bike.

But now I will go hiking again. I am in Darwin right now and will fly to Adelaide this weekend to tackle the Great South West Walk (250 km) and the Heysen Trail (1.200 km).

Stuart Highway: The great Nothingness

Luckily that wasn't my highway...

Most people whom I met on the Stuart Highway did not understand how I could possibly enjoy cycling 1.500 km with nothing to see in between. They always called it the great "Nothingness". Well, partly they are right. There is not really that much to see. It is all flat with a lot of red dust and scrub. Cycling there was a bit like meditation. But still, there are things that keep you entertained:

Termite mounds: There are literally millions of termite mounds out there. There are magnetic mounds (all aligned the same way), giant cathedral mounds (look like giant cathedrals) and just plain whatever mounds. They are everywhere and sometime reminded me of tomb stones on a grave yard. But this means there are also a lot of ants out there - which can be a bit of a nuisance while camping...So if you get bored, just start counting the mounds.

Daily kangaroo death toll: You should not drive around in the outback in the dark - not if you are a cyclist, because traffic will not see you and also not if you are in a car, because you will hit kangaroos. Kangaroos are night active and blinded by the cars' headlights and so every morning I could count last night's death toll... which gets pretty smelly after a couple of days roasting in the sun.

Pink Panther road house

Road houses and rest areas:  About every 100 km there is a road house with fuel, food and most importantly, water. I never had any problem getting water at these road houses which had been a major concern of mine. Because they are the only attraction in a radius of 100 km they can become really famous. There even is a "Pink Panther" Road house! The rest areas do not have any services, but they generally have water tanks, sometimes toilets and people can camp there for free. I never did because they are directly at the road and a road train passing your tent with a speed of 130 km/h and a distance of 10 meters will certainly wake you up in the middle of the night....But I restocked on water there and was always greeted very friendly by the motorists. People had already heard about me! (Hey, there are not so many single women cycling around in the middle of nowhere.) I was offered drinks and water - and usually a friendly chat.

Stuart Highway: 1.500 km across the Outback

Wicked camper

When I was about to leave Alice Springs on my bike I was not at all enthusiastic about cycling at all. Cycling in the US had not been a great experience and Dave's death in a bike accident still gave me nightmares. But at least I wanted to give it a try. It is 1.500 km from Alice Springs to Darwin and in the worst case I only had to cycle 500 km to get to the next bus stop. So sort of grudgingly I set off from Alice - and I did not have to regret it. On the contrary: My bike trip from Alice to Darwin turned out to be a wonderful experience!!! But that was mostly due to the following:

Wind:  After my wind problems in the US I had enquired about the prevailing wind directions in Australia. My old Australian friend Alan (whom I had met the year before cycling) and my warmshowers host in Alice both told me the same thing: Prevailing wind is East South East. So my original plan to cycle from Darwin to Alice was prone to be another desaster. So I decided to change cycling direction and had a tail wind most of the time. I was averaging 15 km/h + every day - as opposed to under 10 km/h in the US. I really pitied all the poor guys I met on the Stuart Highway going the other direction....

Camping spot

Terrain: Australia is mostly flat - especially the Outback! And I just loved that! No more 1.000 m elevation gains everyday. Just plain flat! The terrain gets sort of hilly towards Darwin, but by then I was nearly finished anyways. Call me a wuss - but I love flatland cycling.

Camping: The Outback is basically a huge "nothingness" - just flat brush. And luckily there are hardly any fences. If there are fences, there are also gates to cross the fences and these gates are not locked. And on top of all that there is hardly any traffic at night, so not much road noise. All you have to do is get off the road for a couple of hundred meters, duck behind some bushes and set up camp. Great!

Road train

Traffic: Traffic was so much better than I had expected. First of all there is not that much traffic. Second, most of the traffic is friendly holiday traffic. Lots of retirees who all waved at me. I kept bumping into the same people again and again. Most of the holiday people were doing about my mileage - even in a car!!! Plus Australians don't drive these monster-size RV's like Americans. They mostly have a car or truck with a little caravan behind. And the young backpackers have campervans. I loved the "wicked" campers best. This is a cheap campervan rental and all their campers have tons of graffiti on them. Great entertainment on a long ride. Of course there are the road trains. Trucks with up to 4 trailers and a length of 54 meters. These guys don't get out of their way for everyone - but they did for me on a bike. I still had to watch for oncoming traffic (because then the road trains can't get out of their way), but generally they were much less frightening than I had thought.

So life is good again on a bike!!!!!