Spotted right, left and in the middle of the Road!
Our adventure began with an early start from Perth. Travelling through the Jarrah
forests of the Darling Ranges, we followed the goldfields water pipeline
through rolling farmlands and sleepy country towns. The pipeline is a real engineering
marvel constructed over 100 years ago, in order to secure the water supply of the gold
rush towns in the dry outback. Note: Here we are still on bitumen, but not for much longer!!!
And our target, Alice, is still really far far away.
Soon we passed out of the golden wheatlands and into the historic gold mining areas
(the goldfields) of Southern Cross, Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. At Kalgoorlie we took the
time to have a look at the town (and the brothels which have traditionnally been and still
are numerous in a town founded during the gold rush!, but only from outside, ha ha) and also
visited the famous Super Pit, a huge modern gold mine.
See how small the huge trailers seem to be in this giant hole in the ground?
Tons and tons of gold are produced here every year - in a way that the people attracted by
the gold rush in the early days of the last century would have dreamed of.
The two previous pictures put together into a panoramic view. Impressing! After this
visit, it was time to head north again on the road to Laverton.
Gorgeous spot for lunch, isn't it?
Sunset on the Great Central Road leading right through the Great Victoria Desert. No
bitumen any more! The conditions are depending very much on the weather, and without 4WD you
should not be out here. In heavy rain, the road is closed, not because the vehicles would
not get through (of course it is dangerous!) but mostly because of the damage that they would
do to it. The road is maintained by special vehicles which keep it as smooth as possible -
once they arrive at one end, they turn round and go back. What a lonesome job...
Hundreds of kilometres of sand pist ahead, what an adventure. There is not much traffic
on this road - it is mostly used by the famous road trains (trucks with several trailers).
If you break down out here, you better have a lot of water and a satellite phone with you,
otherwise you are in deep trouble... Settlings are in hundreds of kilometres distance of each
other, and it can take hours until someone drives by out here (or to get there when called).
Sunrise in the desert.
Morning colours of the desert.
There are no people out here, but the desert is far from being "empty": there are lots
and lots of plants and wildlife surviving out here although it only rains once every two years
or so. If you look at the horizon, you seem to be looking at forests and meadows, green and
yellow... But - better don't try to sit on that "grass"!!!
All along the road, you can see a lot of broken cars left behind by their owner. Mostly they were
owned by Aboriginal people, and they just left the car right where it broke down. When they
need spare parts for their new car, they will come back and get them from the old one. Yes,
with their sense of orientation, they will always find back to the spot where they left it!
This one was not dropped by an airplane, as Glen tried to make us believe, but put up like
this by some funny fellows!
The Great Central Road.
Photo stop!
A big lizard on the road. We spotted several fellows like this on our way through the
Great Victoria Desert.
A little closer look...
