The Sun shall be blotted from the sky!

[orthodoc]

Can't wait!

And I just figured/found out what fawet is. I
also am a victim/enthusiast ... love that thread. Love this place ...

Bring on the pics and travelogue (as soon as you can - safe trip home through that desert)!!!

[Griff]

Bring on the pics!

[Lamplighter]

Zen is back to posting, but there's no pics.

No pics, it didn't happen... he, like the astronauts, never even left home.

[ZenGum]

Hang on, guys, I've got a car full of crap to sort and clean, before I even get the pics from the camera to the computer.

[BigV]

welcome back dr zengum.

[ZenGum]

Time to start!

Well, the first 1,000 km was exactly the same as the last trip, so you can look at the first two photos in this thread. For ten hours. I was stingy with photos because I wanted to conserve the camera battery for the Main Event.

I stopped for the night, camping in a roadside rest area. Just on dawn, there was a thunderstorm, and a radio tower about 200 metres away got struck. I was fine in my tent, but in the morning the car was in a puddle about an inch deep.

Unlike my previous trip, from this point I went north, through Bourke, Cunamulla and Blackall, and, as with country driving, began seeing the same few vehicles several times, as we alternately stopped for fuel and passed each other.

Towards evening I saw a small kangaroo bounding along beside the road. Knowing how stupid they are, I went hard on the brakes, and of course the silly bugger swerved across the road just as I got to him, but I "chucked out the anchors" as we say down here, and avoided him with a full panic stop. I took this as time to stop for the night, so at the next area I made camp, and was soon joined by other traveler/campers, who I had seen at a fuel stop earlier in the day, driving from Melbourne also to the eclipse. There were three humans and George. George is quite well known, having been to more than 50 festivals in Southern Australia and spending the entire time on the dance floor at every one. We had our own mini-festival, and these kids hit the pretty hard. We took this photo of George.



Next day was more northwards. The roads got worse, since there is no direct Adelaide-Cairns route. I took the Muttaburrasaurus Byway ... really ... which looks like this:



When two cars approach, we each put two wheels in the dirt and cruise past at about 80 kph (keeps flying stones down) and give each other a wave (it gets lonely out here); but when a truck is approaching the procedure is:



Get off the road and let them by. You don't want the back end of a road train fishtailing around in the gravel and kicking up stones all over.
And when I say road train I mean one of these.



Yeah, that's a fuel tanker, I figure 72,000 litres, with 82 wheels, does 100 kph, and has one person in charge. Yes, that is my car behind it, but yes, there is a *bit* of forced perspective. I had passed a few triples earlier, but when I saw this, I decided to stop for the night!

I'll also say I chose not to pass trucks a few times. In one case I was behind a triple with standard shipping containers on it, and the back was getting blown about by cross winds pretty badly. I wanted to do 110, the truck was doing about 100 - but it was barely 20km to a town where I was going to stop for fuel and food anyway. I sat behind it and lost maybe two minutes.

[ZenGum]

Latish on day three I had to do about 30 kms of dirt road.



It was pretty corrugated and dusty, and the shaking seemed to cause an electrical fault.
When I push the brake pedal the brake lights come on, but so do the left indicators, steady not flashing.
There was a bit more than that but nevermind.

The fourth day got me to Cairns, about 3100km so far.
As I went north, roadhouse meals got bigger.
Day two, in Cobar, the request for "eggs on toast" got me two fried eggs on two pieces of toast.
Day three saw breakfast in Auguthella, and the eggs were joined by some fried tomato.
Day four was in the tropics, near Charters Towers, and "eggs on toast" produced three eggs, two toast, tomatoes, bacon and a hash brown.
Coming back, in Townsville, you got all this plus chips.

I spent a whole day in Cairns, shopping, washing, etc.

Then I went North again.
This is the tropics, but only a tiny amount is rainforest.
Most is tropical savannah, of which this is a not-too-well executed panorama shot.
As far as I could tell, the road is the only man-made structure visible from this point.



The we left the main road for 25 kms of winding dirt, gravel and dust.



And I finally made it to the festival site.
I found a likely looking spot, but it was just past midday and pretty hot and humid,
so I went and visited the neighbours and hung out in the shade of their domes, as I will mention later.
As things cooled off a little, I made my camp:



The tarp over the top was because the mid-day sun passes two degrees south of
directly overhead, and this makes the tent much more liveable.

[Chocolatl]

Great travelogue so far, Zen! Love the detail about kangaroo stupidity. Opossums tend to swerve at cars, too, but then they're only about as big as house cats. I imagine if you hit a kangaroo it'd do some serious damage to your car.

[orthodoc]

Thanks, Zen! Really appreciate the time you've taken to get the photos and post the travelogue, and especially the detail about road trains, the need for tarps over the tents, kangaroos, etc. Looking forward to the next installment, whenever you're able.

[glatt]

Excellent travelogue!

When you pass a road train on one of those single lane paved roads, you have to get off of the paved surface and pass in the gravel? That's amazing!

I don't mind dirt roads so much, but when they get that washboard, or as you say "corrugated," surface, they are terrible. You can try going different speeds to find one where the vibrations don't resonate so much, but that really doesn't work so well. You just have to either slow down to walking speed, which isn't going to happen, or else put up with letting the fillings vibrate out of your teeth. I'm not surprised you had an electrical problem. It's probably about the worst abuse you can give a car. Get me a grader, STAT!

I love it that you just camp by the side of the road. We used to do that all the time when I was a kid, but people in the US don't do that any more. You'll get the cops called on you if you try that here now.

[Lamplighter]

Great pic's and commentary and scenery.

But no pic's with Z, himself
... must have or didn't happen.

[footfootfoot]

Z is reclusive AND he doesn't show up on film or camera sensors either for some reason.


Zen, you are just adding fuel to my antipodal fire.

[infinite monkey]

He's a wampire.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Good job documenting, and explaining for those of us unfamiliar with Australia, your trip. Thank you.

Those road trains should carry a bumper sticker I saw recently...

IF MY BLINKER IS ON, I'M NOT ASKING PERMISSION, I'M TELLING YOU WHERE I'M GOING

[Lamplighter]