The Many Faces of the Outback

With our trip up the east coast of Australia having come to an end it was time to turn inland towards the setting sun and venture into the legendary Australian outback. A land of mythology, a land of thunderous road trains and giant termite mounds, of vast skies and open landscapes where every sunset seems to have exploded from a painter’s canvas before giving way to a symphony of stars whose song forces you to contemplate the nature of infinity. Yes, we were coming into what I feel is the heart and soul Australia, a place that is more of an experience than a destination.

We were in for a long haul, with nearly 3000 km of highway lying between us and our destination. We were headed to Darwin via the Overlander’s Way, which was to take some 33 hours over the course of three days.  We loaded up on food, fuel and water set off.  One of the most enjoyable things about traveling over land versus by air is that you get a sense of the lay of the land and you can watch it transform over time. In no time flat we’d traversed the narrow coastal range and had reached a flat and dry, lightly wooded savannah grassland which slowly gave way to an even flatter treeless prairie.  We were in cattle country, and the first day of our journey was spent crossing the north eastern portion of the Lake Eyre drainage basin which covers one sixth of Australia, one of the largest in the world. 

In the morning of the second day we came to Mount Isa, an isolated mining town on the western edge of the Lake Eyre drainage basin and the last major settlement before we were to reach Katherine just south of Darwin. We took the opportunity to resupply before heading over the pass between the rocky hills west of the city. If the first day was sparse, the second day was no man’s land, with even fewer rest stops and gas stations. It was commonplace to see warning signs posted on the highway just after leaving a settlement warning that there will be no gas for the next 300 km.  Not long after the pass we crossed into the Northern Territory and the grasslands gave way to alternating desert scrub and lifeless red earth. We’d been warned not to drive between dusk and dawn due to the overabundance of kangaroos who, seeking to avoid the oppressive heat of the day, become active at that time. It was a this point that we began to see quite a lot of supporting evidence laying around.  I'm talking about roadkill, and because of our time in the outback, to this day I can say with certainty that we've seen far more dead kangaroos than living living ones. Unfortunately enough I made my contribution, though fortunately it wasn't a kangaroo which certainly would've totaled our car. No, instead it was a snake, a creature which isn't likely to elicit the same sympathy from the majority of those of you who read this.  It was a large black snake that spanned nearly both lanes of highway and by the time that I realized it wasn't a mirage it was too late and I plowed over it.  I glanced horrified in my rearview mirror to see it flipping end over end before coming to stop, still and lifeless.  I was distraught for the rest of the day.

The absolute silence of night in the Australian Outback is permeated only by the rolling thunder of a passing roadtrain, which proves somehow a peaceful lullaby drawing you in to a slumber.

We'd been driving from sunrise to sunset for two straight days and on the final day of our journey restlessness was starting to get the better both of us. We’d reached the junction with the Stuart Highway and turned north for our homestretch to Darwin.  We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and the landscape begin to change again, leaving behind the lifeless desert in exchange for a green and densely wooded to tropical savannah which would continue all the way to Darwin.  It was at this point we began to see something strange, pillars of hardened earth dressed in T-shirts and caps, dresses and bonnets. We later found out that the pillars were actually termite mounds, but why dressed up like people? Who knows. Anything to break the monotony of the drive I guess.  We also began to see massive birds of prey, wedge tailed eagles, feasting on the carcasses of the kangaroos. You just gotta love the Outback, in all its wild glory :)

Sunrise

Sunset