You may well ask…

Why haven’t we travelled to inland Australia before now? You may well ask…

Firstly, we had always thought that the distances were too great. However, we have discovered that with good roads, a speed limit of 110kms, virtually no traffic and tag team driving the distance is not an issue at all… especially when you have the luxury of a one-way journey.

Secondly, we don’t have a caravan. Not a problem… there is plenty of reasonably priced accommodation available and the  “I’m too young to be a grey nomad” excuse is no longer valid.

Thirdly, we thought it would be terribly hot but… so far so good…today was 34 degrees and with low humidity we have hardly raised a sweat.  

Fourthly, we expected the scenery to be monotonous. Well yes, the area around Coober Pedy is rather barren but during our journey today we found that the scenery changes are regular, unexpected and often breathtaking. Today we passed huge salt lakes, spiraling willy-willys, significant areas of scrubby woodland, a wonderful diversity of arid land trees and stunning barren mesas (ie flat top mountains).  The huge 60 wheel road trains are impressive as is the sight of a wedge-tailed eagle feasting on road kill.

Fifthly, we expected the road would be flat and straight. While there are some flat, straight bits there are many hills and ranges and quite a few roads that meander like rivers rather than runways. Having said that, there is a runway too. The Royal Flying Doctors actually have an emergency runway on the Stuart Highway. Amazing! Not sure who has the right of way!

Finally, we wondered whether our music collection might get a little repetitive, so we set ourselves the challenge of listening to every album alphabetically in our digital collection. After 2000 kms we are still in the ‘B’s – deeply stuck, but thoroughly enjoying the ‘Best of…’ section.

And then there is Coober Pedy- a strange barren, broken, bizarre and buried town. Most of the buildings including our motel and the local Anglican Church are all built underground. Its cooler, its cheaper and it fills up the space left after you mine the hill looking for opals. While people live underground the surface, for some reason is littered with  the rusting corpses of trucks, cars, machinery and a even space ship.

So we apologise to inland Australia for ignoring you for so long – and we thank you for making us feel so welcome!