An Outback Roadtrip

When we checked the engine of our campervan before leaving Kings Canyon, we noticed that there was a lot of water missing in the cooling system. Therefore we called the rental company (Travellers Auto Barn) and they told us to get it checked in Alice Springs. However, on our way there we could not go faster than 100km/h as the engine was running hot. It took us quite some time until we finally arrived at a company called Tony's Auto Wreckers. You can see a picture on the left – there were lots of wheels, engine parts, and old cars lying on the ground. It was the right place, however they told us to come again the next day as it was too late in the afternoon (3pm). Most of the shops in Australia close at 5pm and they didn't want to make an exception for us. We were a bit disappointed because we wanted to travel up north that day.

Early in the morning of the next day, we dropped our car for the repair work and went to downtown Alice Springs in between. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast including French toast with bacon and maple syrup. When strolling through the streets we met Caro and David again and they told us on which date there diving course was going to start. We then called Prodive Cairns to book the same course for Julia. She was happy, as she would know two people in her course already! After lunch we went back to Tony's just to find out that the car wasn't ready and we were just shouted at for being too early. As we couldn't change it, we sat down in the shade along a dirty road and read our books for an hour. Then, finally, the car was ready to go with a new cooler. We drove north to Devil's Marbles and stayed there for the night.

Hard to believe: We started the next morning with viewing the sunrise over Devils's Marbles at 6 o'clock in the morning – without an alarm clock! Then we headed north again up to Three Ways. We then turned east on Barkly Highway, where it was once not possible to fill up the gas for 260km. After some hours of driving through farmland, we finally left the Northern Territory and entered Queensland – also called the sunshine state. In the late afternoon we arrived in Mt. Isa, our destination for the day.

We started the day with a mining tour, since Mt. Isa is home to one of the biggest mines in Australia. The tour was really worth seeing: We had a very nice guide, a former mine worker, who showed us around in the underground (!) mine. We also had to dress like mine workers including orange overalls, gum boots, and a helmet with a flashlight. The tour took 3 hours and we were able to go 6 meter under the surface, go with a little train, and even drill a hole into the mountain. After the tour we wanted to go on to Normanton – however, we didn't get that far. A passing road train shot a stone on our windscreen. There was a big crack in the glass which grew bigger and bigger (20cm in less than 30 minutes). We finally decided to get it checked and returned to a roadhouse. They told us to put some nail polish onto the crack and keep on going, but we were not sure about that and returned to the previous bigger city. On the way there, our car hit a lizard, a bird, and the first snake we've seen in the wild so far is now dead – although we were only going 40km/h on the highway. In Cloncurry we were told to leave it like it is, as they are not able to repair it somewhere near. One mechanic told us, that there are two layers of glass and that the windshield cannot break. Reassured, we moved on to stay the night on a rest area and we were able to experience another spectacular sunset in the outback.

We started the next day very early because we had to make up for the previous delay. The destination was Undara, approximately a 700-800 kilometers drive. The route was not very spectacular: There were some tiny villages, but most of the time we saw just spinifex grass or cattle. We also got into a swarm of grasshoppers, which made it very hard to see. These 10 centimeter large insects were banging into the car like mad. In the late afternoon we arrived at Undara Volcanic National Park, where we enjoyed singing songs in the evening at the fire – including Australia's unofficial national anthem “Walzing Mathilda”.