Life in the Aussie Outback!

Life in the Aussie Outback!

Dec 01, 2021

Travelling around the outback, you get a feeling of the enormity of our country.

You can drive for hours on straight roads – seeing very few other road users. The landscape is flat sometimes there are scrubby bushes and red dirt, sometimes there are rocks and red dirt, sometimes it is hilly with trees and red dirt, sometimes just tufted grasses and red dirt…. Get the consistency here??? That’s it – red dirt most of the time, this red dirt is actually very fine dirt which manages to get into everywhere! However, for our trip; we have had an unusual amount of rain for this time of year and so, no great surprise – that very fine red dirt has turned itself into very sticky red mud!  On one occasion, during a heavy downpour on the Sturt Highway, just south of Tennant Creek, we came across some roadworks… A section of the highway was being raised, so they had graded temporary roads either side of the new work. They had the obligatory hi-vis clad road worker at the beginning of the road works indicating by a wave of his hand to slow down – we could see that there was water on the side of the road, however there were no caution signs suggesting any concern! Well… Ma Kettle was driving at the time and the water on the side of the road became water on the road! Not just a puddle here and there, the whole single lane one-way temporary road was completely under water! All you could see were a few white guideposts on the left and partially submerged orange cones on the right! At one stage the water was at least 30cm deep and there was nowhere to stop or pull over without blocking the southbound lane of the highway and you had no idea what was lurking below the water... This sludgy mess covering the road went on for at least two kilometres before the roadwork abruptly ended and we discovered the bitumen again… By the time we got to Alice Springs, we heard that this road we had just come along was closed due to flooding!!! A sigh of relief as the thought occurred to us … we might have been stranded, stuck in red mud for days.  The most annoying thing about all that! When we stopped for a break, we found that the water had found its way into the workings of the electrics. The retractable entry step of the G-Van doesn’t want to open or close any more…poor old Ma Kettle says her knees aren’t what they used to be so I’ll not hear the end of it till it gets fixed.

We’ve discovered that everything seems to be so much bigger in the outback!

Meatants at Augathella are huge! They apparently like to climb electricity poles… we were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of this genetically (maybe mechanically) engineered chappie!

Then there are the Cockatoos, some people say that they can eat just about anything because of their ironclad stomach, well the two cockies standing about 1.8 metres tall, that we saw at Mitchell tend to confirm that theory…

Then there are the cows! Apparently cows out here are big enough that they eat cars!!!  Well I’m assuming that’s what the sign says…

What about the rocks you might ask? Coming from the Granite Belt, we have seen our fare share of rocks...But Way Out West, there are small rocks known as “Devils Marbles”

And some BIGGER rocks, known as Kata Tjuta!

And then there is the biggest rock of all!

Well that’s it for today, it’s 38 degrees outside. Not sure if I should stay inside with the grand kids (and air conditioning), walk the 50 mtrs up the road to the pool or wander along to the local coffee shop (air conditioned) for a tiny bit of quiet… decisions! Ah! I’ll think about making these decisions tomorrow. For now, maybe a little afternoon nap.

Remember “Water is the primary source of life as we know it… because no water means no coffee!”

Till next time, Pa Kettle

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