The Red Center

There is really on two directions to go to leave Alice Springs: north or south. We're headed north to Tennant Creek at the moment. Not far north of Alice Springs, we are past the Macdonald Ranges and the land levels out and the true scope of where we are driving becomes clear. We are in the red center of a nearly unimaginably large, seemingly empty place filled with wonders.

There are trees in the distance, but they are not very tall or densely growing. Mostly, there is grass here. We are just north of the Tropic of Capricorn here. There is a monument at the roadside announcing the location of this line.

There are spots with little grass or trees. Just lots of red dirt. Scenes like this one really bring into focus how reliant we are on our transport. If the truck dies, we are in trouble. I wouldn't say serious trouble since there is a reasonable amount of traffic on this road...perhaps a car every 5-15 minutes. Much more traffic that we had on the Great Central Road.

But, we had no mishaps and the ute ran like a top. The speed limit out here in the Northern Territory is 130 kph (a little less than 81 mph). We chose our stops so we didn't have to drive this fast; we stuck with 100 kph as a safe speed. Later, on our return south, we cheated and pushed it on up to 125, 130 to get on with it. For now we are cruising and enjoying the countryside.

Something else the keen eye will see that in the Northern Territory, people are not so careful about littering as they are in other places. Compared to any other state we've been in in Australia, this is covered in rubbish.