Road trip – Day 52 (May 6)

When travelling around Australia, especially the more isolated areas such as where we are at present, there are a few basic rules people should follow.

1. Always carry water with you.
2. Handy to carry some food or at least some snack bars.
3. Check your vehicle for general maintenance.
4. Constantly check your dials on the car, such at the temperature gauge.

A young couple this morning found out how easy it is for things to go wrong. Travelling northwards on the Stuart Highway towards Tennant Creek from Alice Springs the last car in our little convoy was passed by a speeding car. (Speed limit in the Northern Territory is 130kms/hour). As they passed our friends their water hose burst spraying our friends car with coolant and water. The car continued to pass us and the other car leading our convoy. About 6kms further on we saw the car stopped on the side of the road with steam coming out of the motor.

The driver, a young British backpacker, stopped when he finally noticed the gauge, but it was to late. We gave the young couple a lift to the nearest phone, 50 kms away. The couple had no water in the car to drink and no food in the car to eat. They had no idea where they were as they had no maps. Mobiles phones did not work.They were both from Europe and had no idea that the road from Port Augusta to Darwin was so isolated. Luckily this story ended well with the couple safe and sound.

We dropped the couple off at the Aileron roadhouse where we saw some interesting statues

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We decided to stop at Wauhope roadhouse which is basically a hotel which sells fuel. Wauhope Hotel was built in 1938 to cater for the Wolfram mines 15 kms east of the hotel. Wolfram was used in the manufacture of munitions and when labour was hard to find during the war, to work in the mines, Chinese workers were brought from Narau to work in the mines. These mines continued until the 1950’s. Apparently the remains of Chinese ovens, old building etc can be found.

We settled down to watch the stars and a cow who looked over the caravan park fence at us. Lance discovered the awesome sunset behind us and there was a rush to get cameras.We were torn between the full moon rising and the fabulous sunset.

and here is the moon – not a perfect photos but better than nothing. I have just read that I should be using a faster shutter speed so heres hoping for the next full moon.