Diary 27 |
2005 |
A town called "Alice"
Hmmm that was frustrating!! I just wrote this whole story and got to the end and
my little PC crashed and I lost the lot!!! oh well I will just have to sit here
by the pool watching the ladies sunbathe in the blazing 35 degrees temperature
and re-write it!! Perfect blue skies and a very chilled out atmosphere, they
have had no rain here in Alice for 10 months!! Its a small town in the middle of
nowhere but the main place for hundreds of miles in any direction. Here I plan
to settle for two weeks and work at my newly acquired job. I am going to join a
building company at 6.00am on Monday laying concrete with a gang around an
industrial unit in town. Its work that I have done a thousand times before but
not in this hostile environment!! Should be interesting!! Have got myself a
lunchbox and am all set to work now, and the money is quite good.
The journey was good from Adelaide and Fanny behaved herself very well. I
travelled from Adelaide to Port Augusta (the gateway to the outback) the first
day, taking the smaller roads and passing through tiny one horse towns like
"Gladstone" where locals were pleased to stop and chat. Then I clipped the
Flinders range and onto "Coober Pedy" the next day. "Coober" is about 600k north
of Port Augusta into the outback. By far the most unusual town I have seen so
far. It gets so hot and inhospitable in this little opal mining town that most
people live underground. I did a quick whirlwind tour of the town before
retiring to my underground backpacker dorm room. The flies were as expected
UNBELIEVABLE!! All over you like a rash hunting for moisture and pestering you
like crazy!! The next morning I rode of early on my 700k ride up to "Alice"
totally different weather that day and after 100k I had to stop and put my
sweatshirt on!! It seemed crazy after yesterdays hot hot ride through the desert
but the clouds had cooled it down a lot. Another 200k up the road and I was very
hot again and the sweatshirt had to come off. Petrol stations or "roadhouses" as
they call them are about 200ks apart and the furthest I had to travel for fuel
was 258k. Fanny was behaving herself very well and we cruised at 150-160k all
the way (90-100mph) there are no speed limits in the outback but I was in no
hurry and I didn’t want to run out of fuel out there!! The scenery changed
dramatically every few hundred k's from desert to fairly lush countryside and
once over the border into the "Northern Territory" hills and mountains rose on
the horizon. I spotted camels wandering around and the odd EMU and well over 200
Roo's... All dead!! (road kill) from the huge road trains that thunder down the
outback road. Infact I never saw 1 live roo all the way up to Alice. So that’s
it, I am now here in "Alice" all sorted out ready to work on Monday and spend
'til the end of the month here before I ride back to Sydney via the East coast
and the Great barrier reef. Plenty of time to see "Aires Rock" and "Kings
Canyon" hopefully with little Skye when she eventually gets here ;-) I have met
a crazy man from the UK in the next room to me that would like to send a message
to you all via my website!! It is as follows :-
"John sends you love and light so that true light shines bright, to empower your
true self to realize your dreams" hmmm well it is hot out here!! I have met lots
of really nice people John being one of them and also in his room is Victoria
from Crawley, we made a mean BBQ last night good team effort ;-)