On the road with Dirty Sanchez: part 2

Some more pictures of our road trip today!

What I won't show you are the many, many dead kangaroos along side the road. You can't drive 20 minutes without seeing one and  it made us a little sad at first, but after a while you kind of get used to it, even when they are horribly disfigured or decapitated. It's one of the reasons why you're not allowed to drive at night because they are nocturnal and they're not reacting very fast either. A couple of times, we experienced that this cute marsupial isn't the most clever among its kind. They stand in the middle of the road, but with their skin being the same color as the surroundings, you always notice them too late. They look at your car but they're frozen and have no clue what to do, so too often they make the wrong decision and jump right in front of your vehicle instead of turning around (or could they just be very suicidal?). Luckily, Dirty Sanchez is a good fellah and he doesn't speed (he can't actually) so we always managed to brake in time and save the life of at least 10 skippies.

All of this might have influenced our choice in the supermarket in Katherine (proud hometown of Cadel Evans, for those interested in cycling) because we left with two juicy kangaroo steaks for our first camp site barbecue. Also first time I tried this meat and it's quite good, very tender and tasty and cheaper than beef or pork.

When we crossed the border between the Northern Territory and South Australia, we stopped at Lake Hart, one of many dry, salt lakes in that area. From far, it looked like it actually had water in it but only when we were very close, we discovered the vast, salty surface which is so different to the ochre landscape we'd been driving through for days.

Another curiosity we encountered while being on the road with Dirty Sanchez is the 'grey nomad'. Well, usually there is two of them. Australians love to travel, when they're young they all go overseas but when they're a bit older, they love to discover the homeland. So when they retire, a lot of Ozzies rent or buy themselves a big 4WD with caravan and off they are, for three, four, five months or longer. We even met a couple that was driving around Australia for an entire year. All of these people, most of them couples, looked so relaxed and they always had great stories about exclusive and remote places they had stayed at, I often envied them. Okay, they have time, money and the right gear for this trip (a lot of exciting places in Australia are only accessible by 4WD) but I am going to remember this idea and the day I retire, I'll be back in Oz with a big jeep and the rest of the country can call me one of their 'grey nomads'!

With this post, I'm saying goodbye to our lovely van. He might have caused a bit of confusion in the town of Peterborough where the inhabitants were convinced that we were selling oranges but overall he's been a great and reliable travel buddy. So long maaaate and thanks for not letting us down in the middle of nowhere!

On the road with Dirty Sanchez: part 1

Here are some impressions of our road trip from Darwin to Sydney! Now that we've finished it, we need to confess that driving 5400km in 12 days is a pretty crazy idea. The first six or seven days were quite relaxed; we stopped a lot, visited some national parks and took plenty of pictures. But then, we became aware of our deadline and there were days of non stop driving and a little bit of stress. 

From north to south we took the Stuart Highway (there are actually no other options) right through the desert which guarantees you endless views, plenty of wildlife, breathtaking sunsets and icy cold nights. And whether you like it or not, there are also days without radio, mobile phone reception, internet and even other people. So we didn't make a lot of new friends out there:-) Some nights, we had to sleep on rest area's along the road because there simply were no camp sites. 

Every time, we approached some sort of civilization (it's hard to use the word 'village' when there are just two houses) we felt super excited! Usually these places consist of a service station and a roadhouse. Roadhouses are super interesting because they serve as grocery store as well as post office, bar and sometimes museum. Some of them have become quite famous because they are decorated in a special way. On the pictures below, you'll see the roadhouse in Wycliffe Well, the UFO centre of Australia, where the locals believe they live in some sort of 'earth base' for aliens. The oldest one is in Kulgera and its walls are covered with bras and ties that visitors have left behind. Also the people in these places are quite interesting, a bit western like, imagine men with long grey beards, cowboy boots and wide brim hats... We often had the feeling to be lost in some sort of movie setting.... 

More rock

Uluru isn't the only rock formation in the Northern Territory worth visiting. There are also the Devil's Marbles (first 3 pictures) and the Olga's which are located in the same national park as Uluru.

Uluru (Ayers Rock)

Uluru...what a fascinating place! In the middle of absolutely nothing. Closest town is Alice Springs, at almost 500km. It's traditionally owned by the Anangu (aboriginal) people and to them it's a sacred place. It is not hard to imagine why, on picture it may seem like just a massive ochre monolith but when it appears in front of your vehicle, after you've been driving through the desert for hours, you'll be speechless for a good moment. Uluru is especially dramatic at sunrise and sunset when the colors in the sky change and the rock starts to glow.

There's a bit of controversy going on about whether or not you should climb Uluru. The Anangu people are explicitly asking not to climb it because it is a holy mountain and therefore inappropriate to 'conquer' it. In the cultural centre at the foot of Uluru, you can buy stickers and mugs saying 'I did not climb Uluru and I am proud of it'. But I have a little confession to make here...We did climb it. It's just sooo tempting! Everywhere you're reading: Don't climb! But then there's this nice, little pathway leading right to the top, with ropes to facilitate your climb. Once you're halfway, they've even painted sings on the surface indicating the direction. This was all a little too easy. And once on top, it felt quite rewarding too, to be honest.

But if anything bad will happen to us on this trip, I'm afraid I'll be forever convinced that it's because we climbed Uluru that day...

Australia!!

And here we are, Australia! It's a dream come true. From the moment, we landed in Darwin, everything looked exactly like I've always imagined it....Endless views, dry bush, blue sky, (dead) kangaroo along the road. It felt fantastic to set foot on the Land of Oz!

On day one, we walked around a little in Darwin, the only town of considerable size in the Northern Territory. There wasn't much going, except for some totally drunk indigenous people in the street, something we would see often in the next couple of days. In the late afternoon, we picked up 'Dirty Sanchez' from Travellers Autobarn. We're relocating this funny van from Darwin to Sydney, which means we are bringing it back to its place of origin after other travelers have rented it. It's a cheap way of cruising through Australia because the only thing we're paying is fuel. There are some conditions of course, one of them being that the vehicle needs to be returned within a certain amount of days, that you can't choose. In our case, we had 12 days to relocate Dirty Sanchez back to Sydney, a trip of about 5000km right through the heart of Australia. The van is equipped with a mattress, a tiny tiny kitchen and cooking material, which made it the perfect home for the next 12 days.

We made a first stop in Litchfield National Park, close to Darwin, famous for its abundance of hidden waterfalls and swimming holes. They are all 'safe' at this time of year but with so many crocodile warnings around, I didn't quite feel like staying in the water for hours.

In Litchfield we had our first 'camping in the wild' experience, which was pretty cool, ending and starting the day with a dip in one of the natural bush pools. We are eternally grateful to the chatty Australian boy we met in Sihanoukville, for recommending us Bushman (Australia's Number 1 Premium Insect Repellent) because there were millions of them, ready to eat us alive. Thanks so much, this product is a lifesaver :-)

Huge termite mounds in Litchfield!

Really have to get rid of the Asia pose now...

Voila, Dirty Sanchez! Ready for our first night in the wild!