After a glorious sunrise which I nearly caught in ones and zeros
We hit the frog'n toad again and headed northward up the Tablelands Hwy. I was starting to doubt reports in another blog which will go unnamed here (Stephen) about this being a road through endless grass plains, as everything was looking pretty much the same as yesterday with tracts of low scrub interspersed with batches of smallish trees, but then we came over a rise, and there it was. Grass as far as the eye could see, and only a very sparse scattering of single low trees every so often to add some sort of perspective. Truly amazing. All unfenced cattle property too, so we had to be careful. I counted at least 24 beef carcasses in various states of decay, from fresh last night to possibly prehistoric.
Number 15 was particularly memorable as we had to swerve around, through and over the large bones scattered all over the road. Not hard to imagine how they all got there though as we were slowed several times by live ones crossing the road on their morning trek to the water hole.
At one stage it seemed that there were groups of cattle in twos, threes, and even tens, converging on a distant wind mill from all points of the horizon. Then, a couple of hours later (yes that long) we crested another rise and were back in treed country again. What a fantastic place for a road!
Did someone just mention the road? Oh yeah, I did. This is not one of your great driving roads. Lonnnnggggg straights separated by gentle bends for the most part, and only one lane width of up and down bitumen for all to share. If someone comes the other way, you have to move over and put two wheels in the dirt to make room to pass. Unless of course you are one of the three people who happen to be joint owners of the road - we met them all coming the other way and had to move right off the bitumen to allow them to proceed as if we didn't exist. Children born out of wedlock one and all if you know what I'm sayin'. Trucks and Road Trains of course are another matter entirely. It's a case of move it or lose it with them. Got to say though, they all seemed to appreciate our moving over for them and gave a big wave of thanks each time. There are three or four (I lost count) overtaking lanes which are advertised 20k's in advance coz they are so novel. These are sections of two lane road with, wait for it, a white dividing line down the middle, which run for about 5k's. Of course we never saw another vehicle while on one of these stretches.
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| Apparently this is a kapok tree. THe fruit dries out and inside is soft white fiber which used to be used for stuffing cushions and mattresses etc |
Made it into Heartbreak Hotel for lunch and then set about finding the way to the Lost City which is a bunch of sandstone pillars and cliff faces which look a bit like an old deserted city. Decided to go via helicopter. You know, one of those death trap Robinson ones the "current affairs" shows were all excited about a little while ago. Turns out they appear to be perfectly safe if they don't crash :) Young (well much younger than us) girl pilot Rachel was terrific and pointed out all the sights, gave a potted history and geology lesson, and didn't frighten us even a little bit. What a fantastic experience it was, and well worth the extra debt.
Off to the pub for dinner and entertainment courtesy of Rod Dowsett the at least locally famous country/blues/rock singer (guess he just can't make up his mind....)
Bet he's not a patch on the Coad Sisters (In joke, don't worry if you don't get it).
A slow day for Prados today: Len 88 Hazel 89
Hey Lennie, I can't believe you are already at the Top End. Nice photos. I hear you also found a "nice" coffee. Come on, was it really nice, what about Fabio nice?? :)ps. I'm not impressed, I want to see you grabing one of those crocodiles by the tail, similar to what Steve Irwin used to do.
ReplyDeleteFabio needs to watch his back. The barrista (?) in Alice made a very good macciato and looked better as well ;-)
ReplyDeleteAs for the late Mr Irwin, watch this space....