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DAY 26

Week 4

SMOKY BAY (South Australia, AUS) to ALICE SPRINGS (Northern Territory, AUS)
via LAKE EVERARD & COOBER PEDY (South Australia, AUS)

Friday October 8th, 2010

TODAYS MILEAGE – 783 miles or 1261 kilometres

TRIP MILEAGE – 4024 miles or 6476 kilometres

Another big day of driving.

After getting up early, packing the ute and bidding our gracious hosts Darky & Jude goodbye, we hit the road and headed North for Alice Springs, (Northern Territory), my birthplace and home town.

With a bit of local knowledge, we headed straight up the guts through Lake Gairdner National Park, Kingoonya and hitting the Sturt Highway about 200 kilometres (124 miles) below the opal mining town of Coober Pedy.

Admittedly, this 288 kilometre (179 mile) shortcut, was all unsealed dirt road travelling, but by not having to backtrack through Port Augusta, saved us 431 kilometres (268 miles) and about 4 hours on the road.

I, for one, was glad we took the shortcut as the countryside was bursting with colour from all the recent rain.

Passing through Kingoonya was like a scene from Deliverance. We could hear the banjo's playing as we came through town and drove past the Kingoonya Waterhole Hotel looking to fuel up. The town is basically a railway workers camp and the amenities are pretty sparse to say the least. Just looking for fuel was a mission in itself, as there is no signage or indicators as to where to find the fuel bowsers.

Should you need to fuel up and are heading from the South, as you come into town, you'll see the pub. Turn left in front of the pub and head down until you see the white fuel bower towards the end of the street, on the right. They have Wi-Fi credit card filling, so make the most of it.

After lunching in Coober Pedy we took a quick squiz at the Umoona Opal Mine before hitting the road again. The landscape around the opal town is something you have to see for yourself. With very little rainfall and water, the surrounding areas are pretty barren, but the thousands of mullock heaps give the joint a post-apocalyptic surreal feel.

We made the mistake of stopping at Marla for fuel. Let me give you a travel tip for free, if you have the fuel to get to Cadney Park, or better still - Kulgera.... keep going!!! If the lack of service, food or fluids doesn't get you, it's the putrid stench from the ablutions that reinforce your thoughts that you have in fact landed smack bang in the middle of a cluster fuck that specialises in shithole conditions.

I caught up with good mate of mine Smithy and his missus Jules at the Kulgera (NT) Roadhouse, just over the South Australia/Northern Territory border. Now Smithy was one of the local coppers from Alice Springs and a damn good bloke. Like many of the youth of Alice Springs back then, Smithy knew you both locally and for some of us – professionally, for getting into silly mischief. I didn't think it at the time, but meeting Smithy was one of the best things that happened during my youth.

Anyways, Jules and Smithy purchased the Kulgera Roadhouse and have done some great things with the joint, so if you're ever up that way, be sure to drop in for your trip essentials or even a chinwag as nicer host you could ever hope to meet.

We would have liked to stay longer, but as it was getting dark and with 300 kilometres (186 miles) to travel, we had to get a wriggle on in order to get to Annie & Mugsy's without hitting any livestock or kangaroos.