Heading to the centre

As we started across the Savannah Way the land became flat with low bushes and sand. The wind was like a hair dryer on high blowing on you. Our air conditioning works for the front seats but not well for the kids way in the back, so we drove with the windows open a lot. There was a lot of great roadkill, mostly kangaroos but also some wild boars, emus, and echidna, and even the odd cow as most of the livestock wanders free for 100s of kms. Termite mounds are as common as trees, they come in all sizes from a few inches high to far over Kevin's head. Here is one of the girls next to one of the first big ones we came across, little did we know we'd be seeing hundreds of thousands over the next few weeks.

After the picture Kyra noticed the red back spider on the side of the mound busily tending her eggs.

The next day we were almost to Normanton (1000kms west of Cairns) when Kevin saw far up ahead a cloud of dirt. He thought some crazy guy in an off-road vehicle was messing around. When we drove by the area he glanced to the side looking for the off-road path and he saw instead a car up on its side with a guy climbing out the sky-ward door. The car was very camouflaged and he never would have seen it if he didn't look. The guy was limping and acting odd but seemed ok. We drove him the last 10km to Normanton because we had no emergency signal on our phones. The number here isn't 911, it's 000. Just to reassure you all, we would never have picked a stranger up had we not seen the accident happen. It's so remote no one passed by while we were helping him and it was soooo hot. Had he been knocked out and we hadn't seen his car he could've easily perished from the heat. We got him to the hospital and made sure he was taken care of. We think he was driving to fast and maybe fell asleep as he'd been rushing from Darwin to get to the coast only since the day before.

On the way to Darwin and then down through the middle to Adelaide the scenery is pretty much the same: dry and sandy, low bushes, sometimes low trees. You have to watch out for emus, cows, kangaroos (although we only saw the dead kangaroos all the way through), and even wild camels. The speed limit is 130 kms/ hour, we only went 85-90 because that's what our motorhome drives best at. Jim says the 130 limit is new for the Northern Territory, there wasn't any before that. You have to watch out for the road trains also. These are large transport trucks like we have at home, only instead of one trailer they're pulling 3 or 4. It's a train. On some of the highways the paved area is a one-lane strip and the shoulders are wide and dirt. If another car comes you both have to get two wheels over. If a road-train comes you want to get right off so they don't have to drive in the dirt. Apparently they'll kick up rocks and put out your windshield. It's good to talk to the locals and learn these things.

Thanks for all the comments. It's great to hear from you Robyn, the girls still talk about you and are excited to be hanging out with your uncle! Thanks to Rob and family too, it's nice to hear from you. Your brother's been such a great host and the kids love him, we threaten to not leave!

To Grandma, Happy Birthday! We hope you had a great one. Thanks for all your best wishes and comments Maureen and Colin.

We'll be taking off on travels again soon so I will be updating this site often before we leave Jim's all-too-comfy abode.