The Big Trip North

An Aboriginal sign on a salt lake

When you drive around Australia, you get an idea of how very large our country is. It's huge!

The interior is largely underdeveloped, lacks water and the nutrition to grow food crops. It's used extensively for cattle industries. 

In the north of South Australia is the Woomera Rocket Range prohibited area where nuclear bombs were tested in the 50s and rockets are still tested. Some of the range is still radioactive, thus, nobody is allowed to travel into the range.

The terrain changes from open expanses with gibber rock, few trees and no capacity to turn it into anything of value to similar country with red sand and short acacia trees that survive for years without water among the salt bush. Over the South Australian border in the Northern Territory, the landscape produces some small hills with rugged landscapes that have been there for millions of years since Australia was underwater.

Many fossils, including trilobite fossils, remind us of how long ago it was since we were underwater.

It's harsh country and over the couple of hundred years since European occupation, dozens of explorers have died there of heat exhaustion, dehydration or starvation. In some places it's hard to find anything living but a number of lizards seem to appear at frequent intervals. Flies seem to survive anywhere.

The trip from Adelaide to Alice Springs in Central Australia is 1500 km and although it can be done in one 15 hour day, we usually stay overnight at Coober Pedy going north and Woomera going south. That way we avoid driving at night when it's more dangerous because of the kangaroos, emus and cattle that wander about the roads.

Here's a video my wife Christina took while we were driving through the Woomera Rocket Range, it shows what the country is like.

If you ever come this way, bring plenty of water and invest in either a satellite phone or a personal locator beacon (PLB), because if something goes amuck, there is no mobile phone connection in many of the areas and PLB will attract a rescue helicopter much faster than word of mouth from a driver travelling to the nearest township.

It's a lovely trip if you haven't done it a hundred times.

Robin