Desert Venturer

Most tourists in Australia take a plane to get to the center of the continent. J and I wanted to see the wide open space first hand and witness the change in landscape and vegetation from the coast to the desert. So we opted for a Desert Venture bus trip that allowed us to travel across the land over the course of three days. Due to all the rain in Cairns, we had to take an alternative route the first day in order to avoid the flooded river crossings. We headed south along the Bruce Highway to Cardwell and Townsville and then west on the Flinders Highway for a late picnic lunch at Riedy. Once we got to Charters Towers in the late afternoon, we could really see the change in vegetation. In this semi-arid region eucalypts dominated with an understory of grasses. In contrast to the rainforest near the coast where trees were densely packed, the forest here was more open.

Before stopping at our accommodation for the night we popped into Prairie Hotel , an outback pub with a lot of character. The seats around the bar are a collection of old tractor seats, a dentist chair, and a barber shop chair. Above the bar the owner has displayed every cowboy hat he has ever owned and worn. A potbelly stove provides the heat during cool outback nights and you can relax with a drink in a formal parlor with furniture and décor which take you back to the 1900’s.

Finally, into Hueghdon for the night. After dinner at the motel/pub, J and I enjoyed a stroll around town. Even though none of the shops were open, the store fronts still provided us with a glimpse into the life of this small town. Hueghdon’s big claim to fame is dinosaur fossils – hence the trashcans in town are decorated as big dinosaur feet. The main street hosts a short walk past a fountain, the public library decorated with a silver dinosaur fossil sculpture, the newly built town entertainment center, and public benches flanked with huge former windmills.

Early the next morning we passed a female kangaroo who had been hit and killed during the night. Our driver stopped to pick up the joey because he was still alive in his mother’s pouch. The joey instantly became the center of attention despite the fact he was in pain (both legs were broken), cold, shivering from shock, and hungry. Our driver wrapped him in a towel and we dropped him off at our next stop, Winton, so he could be taken to a vet.

Winton is famous because on a nearby cattle station Banjo Patterson, a well-known Australian poet, was inspired to pen the poem Waltzing Matilda and later set it to music. Australians often joke that they would rather this song be their national anthem rather than Advance Australian Fair. While Waltzing Matilda does invoke images of the Australian landscape and life out in the bush, it is a very sad story of a sheep thief who gets caught and commits suicide in order to avoid police capture – perhaps not something you want your country to be remembered for in an anthem. We spend about an hour walking around Winton and got to the end of the main street … where we just stared at the prairie like landscape. If we had the time it would have been great to strike out in any direction from town, set up a tent, and soak up the landscape. The second impressive feature was Arno’s Wall which is a concrete wall/sculpture with household objects imbedded in it – motorcycles, microwaves, TVs, ovens, stoves, hubcaps, radiators, bottles and other miscellaneous junk!

It was getting near lunchtime so we hopped back on the bus and took the Lark Quarry road to Carisbrooke Station, a sheep station larger than some European countries. The road led to the top of the bluff which provided great views of the geology and rocks as well as all the natural water channels running through the country. I have never seen so many dry rivers and channels than during our Desert Venture tour. It is so weird to be nearing a bridge or creek crossing and look out to either side and see absolutely no water. The only way you can tell a river exists is because trees line the banks. On the bluff overlooking Carisbrooke Station I could distinguish an intricate network of channels. Runoff from the bluff provided water for the entire station. Seeing the clumps of spinifex grass and crowns of the trees from above made us realize for the first time why Abroiginal people use dots to characterize the desert landscape.

This station holds another treat as well. One of the rock overhangs contains several rock paintings. We hiked down to get a closer look. Out of all the paintings we would later see, these were the only ones we could really get close to. The images included what looked like plus signs and cross hatching which looked like woven nets. However, these particular paintings are poorly understood because they are not part of a continuous Aboriginal Australian tradition. Aboriginal people who come from these lands do not recognize them and do not claim themselves or their ancestors as the artists.

After a delicious BBQ lunch on the bluff we exited the station via Corkmail Road and saw three huge brolgas, which look like huge cranes with dark necks, standing in the distance. It seemed strange to see birds normally associated with water in the desert, but perhaps the irrigation pond constructed by the station owner had attracted them. We took Lind Road to the Kennedy Highway and eventually stopped at Middleton Hotel, another quirky outback pub literally in the middle of nowhere. Middleton is the home of Lester, an outback Aussie who loves riding and racing wild camels!

Yes, camels were first brought to Australia by Afgans to establish trade routes and haul material across the desert. Over time, a few escaped and the rest is history. Australia is the only country in the world where large populations of camels run wild, and there is a thriving wild camel trade between Australia and Middle Eastern countries. Every year Boulia, another sleepy outback town, hosts camels races. Several years back, Lester, other camel devotes, and their friends and family decided to ride by horse and camel from Winton (home of Waltzing Matilda) to Boulia, a distance of several hundred kilometres. During the two week journey they were really able to lose themselves in the outback landscape and appreciate the huge distances, openness of the sky, texture of the spinifex grass, and reminisce on how people used to travel through this space.

After lingering a bit at Middleton, it was onto the Donahue Highway, a quick stop for a sunset photo, and we pushed onto Boulia and then Wirrilyerna Station for dinner and accommodation.

Dan and Yoli, a husband and wife team who manage a cattle and sheep station, were our hosts for the evening. By now we had seen several kangaroos jumping away from the bus and had even watched a very informative kangaroo documentary. Dan and Yoli had a menagerie of pets enclosed in their front yard and this was J’s first chance to pet a baby kangaroo! It was also at this point where we began to appreciate how cold it gets in the desert when the sun goes down. For the next week we wore every layer of clothing that we had brought and often wished we had remembered to bring mittens and scarves. The flatness and openness of the outback allows you to really see in three hundred sixty degrees. We would appreciate the awesome southern hemisphere sky and the absence of light pollution from large cities for many nights to come.

The next day we got a particularly early start (5 AM) because the turbo-charger has broken the day before and we had to meet the company mechanic, who had left Alice Springs at 3AM and was driving 600 km east to meet us. It’s at a time like this, arranging to meet up with the nearest mechanic who is hours away, that you begin to realize the immensity of the outback. Part of our morning route crossed the Barkley Plains, which consist of red dirt and black organic material left over from dead spinifex grass. This black soil makes excellent road material when it is dry, but becomes quick-sand when it is wet. There were a few clouds in the sky, but none of them told of approaching rain, so we could safely get out of the bus for a ‘nothing walk’, so called because there is absolutely nothing on the horizon for kilometers in any direction. Of course, if you take a look it is obvious that there is ‘something’ present. I could clearly see cattle hoof prints and tufts of spinifex grass that had been nibbled almost to the roots.

Onto the Northern Territory and a stop at Tobbermorey cattle station in order to meet the mechanic and repair the bus. While walking around a bit of the cattle station, this time in the daylight, we could finally appreciate the immensity of these places. Most stations are the size of entire US states or European countries and are very far from towns or settlements of any sort - we wondered how the owners’ social lives adapted to this type of isolation.

The repair was made quickly and soon we were on our way through termite mound country, the largest of which was 9 m high. It’s incredible that tiny insects use their saliva, mud, and excrement to build such huge structures. We snapped a memorable photo in front of the largest mound and then head onto Jervois station for lunch.

Shortly after lunch the bus broke again, this time three fan belts needed to be replaced. But our driver/mechanic said ‘no worries’ as he had spare parts and we enjoyed the desert scenery amongst the red dirt, spinifex grass, and bush tomatoes as repairs were made. Finally, as night fell we were back onto sealed roads (bitumen) – the Plenty Highway and then the Stuart Highway into Alice Springs.