On the road

Today we are heading to Uluru, the red rock in the center of Australia. We have 1700 km ahead of us. If we were to drive straight, it would take about 20 hours of driving time. But we don't want to do that. That's why today we are only driving until Tennant Creek (730 km - 8 hours).

But just driving in the car all the time gets crazy, and there is also something to see along the way besides red dust and trees.

A quick stop at the "bitter springs" of Mataranka. A great place for a quick cool down. Well, with a water temperature of 30 degrees, can you call it a cool down? If you compare it to the outside temperature of 40 degrees and turn it into a mathematical formula, it equals little cooling but great experience.

Next stop: a big termite mound. You can find termite mounds everywhere here, big ones and small ones. Unfortunately, we missed the really big ones.

On the way from Cooinda to Katherine (the day before yesterday), the road was so curvy. That's when I wondered why they put so many curves here in the middle of nowhere. Today on the Stuart Highway, after Tennant Creek, I wondered the same thing. Kilometers of straight road and then out of nowhere, a curve. Why? Does it increase attention? Or did they start paving and suddenly realize they were going in the wrong direction? Or did they have to avoid the territory of a rare butterfly or a protected toad (do you think there are toads in the desert?)?

So now I am driving our long vehicle along the endless and sometimes very bumpy road. A unity of car, road, and my husband sleeping next to me. The only thing that changes here is the color of the asphalt, the amount and height of the trees, and the burnt or brown grass area under the trees.

If you ever need some time for yourself, you should definitely drive this route. Just steer - don't think, and if you use cruise control, you don't even have to step on the gas. The only adrenaline rushes are when we pass a road train (truck with 3-4 trailers) with our lightning-fast 7-meter Sprinter van. Each time, I felt like I was back in the beginning of my driving time, when I overtook a tractor with 2 trailers uphill with my 45 HP Polo.

6 hours on a lonely, long road, you have time to contemplate many meaningful and meaningless things. Like:

Can you get a sunburn in the car behind the window?

Or why do they dress the termite mounds in t-shirts? Are they scarecrows or are they meant to amuse truck drivers?

Or what does the sign "crest" mean? (Some of you might say "well, it's obvious", but as Lothar Matthäus once said: "my English is not so good, my German is better")

Or what are cattles and stocks?

Or should I wear my support stockings tomorrow, maybe then I won't get such swollen feet.

As you can see, there is plenty of time.

Carsten read from the book "nur eine Phase Hase" for the last hour of the drive. It was so funny that I often couldn't see the road because I was crying with laughter. At this point, I would like to thank Kathrin and Frank again for the great and fitting book. We laugh so hard.

It's good that there's not much traffic on the road.

We reach Tennant Creek exhausted, with my feet swollen, shortly before sunset.