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When I reached the main road on my return from Palm Valley, a left turn would have started me on my route, but I first had to backtrack a couple of kilometers to Hermannsburg. My destination there was the garage - not to buy diesel, as I'd scarcely used any going to Palm Valley, but to get a permit. The Mereenie Loop passes through aboriginal lands, and the aboriginal community charge a few dollars to use the road. There were three bikers buying permits ahead of me in the garage.
The first part of the route is across flat country, but it wasn't long before what appears to be an isolated ridge hove into view. This is Gosse Bluff and is thought to be the eroded remains of an impact crater created by an asteroid or comet more than 140 million yeras ago. The crater is now a mere 5 kilometers in diameter and 150 meters (about 500 feet) high, but is reckoned to be the central uplift of a crater that was originally about 22 kilometers in diameter:
A few kilometers later I reached the only road junction on my route and a road sign shortly afterwards gave me details of my destination for the day. 150 kilometers doesn't seem that big a distance, but there is nothing along the route - just the road and, almost at the far end, a 'viewpoint' - a small bulldozed area where you can get off the road and stop.
On the whole, the road surface wasn't too bad, but there were long sections with 'corrugations' - regularly spaced parallel ridges running across the road. At slow speeds, the vehicle shakes violently ('vibrates' is far too gentle an expression), but if you have the courage to accelerate, you eventually reach a speed - about 80 kph (50 mph) in the Land Cruiser - where you are skimming across the tops of the ridges and have a smoother ride. With so little contact with the road, it's a bit like driving on ice: sudden braking or steering are best avoided, so driving requires a fair amount of concentration.
I hadn't got far into the first stretch of corrugations when I caught up wth the motor cyclists: first, the guy by himself on a bike, riding slowly up the wrong side of the road, trying to find a smooth strip of surface. About five minutes later, I passed the couple who were stopped and in the process of reattaching their baggage to the bike. I wonder whether they made it through the Mereenie Loop, or gave up and went back.
After the first section across flat open country, the route passes through the Katapata Gap, and then skirts along parallel to ridges:
Like the rest of the Red Centre, I had expected the drive to be through a desert landscape, but here too the vegetation was flourishing, with some spectacular wildflower displays:
Although first impressions were sometimes misleading. The green vegetation in the foreground ...
... was sparser than it looked from a distance:
These brumbies looked as though they were enjoying the plentiful food:
This is what looks like the latest incarnation of possibly one of the best known road signs in Australia ...
... and its companion a little further along:
Towards the end of my journey the clouds started building ...
... and by the time I reached the lookout point and could look back along the last part of my journey the sky was almost completely covered:
It took me about three and a half hours to cover the approximately 200 kilometers. Traffic was thin, but I passed 17 vehicles coming the other way. By my calculations that means there would be about 5 vehicles an hour passing any spot on the route in one or other direction, so it wouldn't have been a long wait if I had broken down.
The campsite that I stayed in was a bit of a come-down from the one in Palm Valley. However, it did have the advantage of launderette facilities ...
... and some rather classy pigeons that were patrolling the campsite pitches in search of pickings. Their name? The crested pigeon, of course.
Looks like a long and lonely trip, but the landscape must have made up for the lack of other vehicles.
ReplyDeleteThe crested pigeon looks lovely and I bet you were pleased to be able to get some washing done with all the dust you must get covered in. ;O)
chp.
Hi chp,
ReplyDeleteThe landscape was much more varied that I expected it to be - and the type of vegetation. Looking at photos on the interwebulator, the landscape is just brown.
It was also remarkably undusty - if you look at the Land Cruiser in the laundry photo, there's just a light smattering of dust on the spare wheel - and I hadn't cleaned the van. If I get around to blogging that far, you'll see the only time that a van got really dirty was the stage of the trip that I thought would be the most 'domesticated' :-)
Writing this up, I'm struck by how different the experience would have been if the Red Centre had been Red not Green.
"if you look at the Land Cruiser"
ReplyDeleteJust had a second look, there's almost no dust. I would have thought loads by the look of the roads.
Hope you get that far with the blog as I'm waiting for the underwater shots. ;O)
chp.
There'd been three days rain only five days before I was there, which I think explains the lack of dust. There are videos of peopel driving the Mereenie Loop on Youtube, and you can see cars coming the other way in the distance by the cloud of dust - as well as being blinded by the dust onceyou've crossed.
ReplyDeleteThe underwater shots are a bit disapointing - so don't hold your breath ;-)
I like the Australian attitude to drink driving as evidenced by the sign at the garage. They tend to say what they feel.
ReplyDeleteAm still jealous, and getting more so.
I agree with you about saying what they feel, although somewhat tempered by the fact that it's an aboriginal community, so maybe more problems there ...
ReplyDeleteDid you zoom in on the photo? The smaller writing says that the sign is sponsored by the local football team :-)