Prior to this driving vacation, the longest road trip Dave and I had been one was about 4 hours. After 3000 miles in the not so glamorous, relative uncomfortable Land Rover Discovery, we arrived back in Alice Springs without a single exchange of unpleasantness. I have learned to close my eyes and go into a meditative trace while Dave attempts to park. He has learned that it’s much better to make use of the man chairs provided by department stores that try to follow a power shopping Paula around the store.
Day one was undoubtedly the longest. We drove straight south for 13 hours to Port August, South Australia. Thank god for IPods. Even if the antenna was still attached to the car, there aren’t any radio stations for the first 12 hours of the trip. We passed landscape that makes Nevada looking lush and heavily vegetated and makes western Kansas seem hilly. The desolation and isolation of the outback defies description. We drove for hours at a time without encountering another vehicle. After getting out of Alice Springs area, the only paved road we passed prior to Coober Pedy (6 hours) was the one that goes west to Ayers Rock. There are road houses along the way, each spaced about one hundred miles apart. In this part of the world, road houses are wide spots in the Stuart Highway that sell fuel
and food. Most have a restaurant and pub along with camp grounds and some form of motel. The settings are quaint, people are friendly and the food is all made from scratch. Aside from candy bars you’re hard pressed to find any plastic wrapped food at a road house. The coffee is brewed in a percolator, the breakfast rolls are baked fresh each morning, and sandwiches are made while you wait. The meat pies and sausage rolls won’t be earning the heart association seal approval but they’ll make your mouth water and tummy happy!
My creation of outback bingo was a great way to kill and hour or two. Dave’s option may differ slightly since I won both rounds. The long OPEN road resulted in it taking over an hour for me to BINGO. They’re will be some slight modifications to the cards but we’ll play again and share the cards with other people who are leaving Alice in a car. The next version won’t have license plates from various states or trains. At +90 mph Australian plates are impossible to read. Although the 1000 miles of highway parallels the train tracks there’s only a few trains a week traveling those tracks. New additions will be wedge tail eagle, bones, ant hill and peeing man.
We survived the first day and after a good night’s rest we headed to the Barossa wine region. But since I need to whip up some Christmas candy, you’ll have to wait another day for the next chapter of the adventure.
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