Tanami Desert and a jaded P1

[RooFlyer]

The yellow tail black coughatoos are magnificent.

Until they start eating the house ...

 

[eastwest101]

Until they start eating the house ...

They like to eat exterior wires, tv antennaes and wiring on satellite dishes as well.

 

[juddles]

I have to add this photo, taken somewhere on the Tanami - it is of our glorious car, "Ruby".

View attachment 195830

juddles, that would have to be the cleanest 4WD I have ever seen, in the city, or in the bush. Not even the tyres have any orange dust on them. Be honest now, you just had a helicopter drop the vehicle off at odd spots for a pic, right? No footprints in the dust either. Hmmmm...

Did you end up needing the snorkle?

RooFlyer, as always in Life, there is usually a simple explanation for the "extraordinary" - and I agree that in that photo the car does indeed look immaculate! And your eye is keen - the noting of lack of footprints in particular was impressive.

In this case I will let you choose between three possible realities:

(1) simply a "photoshop" job. Required to cover my real absence due to work with the CIA. As is usual with work done by the Company, there are glaring childlike errors - as in this case the placement of a clean vehicle on a backdrop of desert and dust. And for those savvy of SA registration plates, this particular one belongs to a Kia Carnival owned by Hertz. Damn amateurs!!

(2) I am a superb zen driver. I do not drive into dust particles, I drive around them. And using similar Jedi-like powers I am able to take photos from afar without actually leaving the vehicle or touching the ground.

(3) Actually the shot was taken just where the Tanami Track stops being bitumen. We had a couple of days in Alice prior where we cleaned the vehicle - not for looks, but rather to observe each and every inch of it to detect problems. It actually "rained" (sprinkled?) a bit those days, so dust was minimal. At the top right of the photo is the point where the dirt starts - so as my companion deflated the tyre pressures, I took this time to walk a tiny bit ahead, and as I do, I walked off the road, not on it. Hence no foot prints. I took this shot as he caught up with me.
,

 

[juddles]

As have already finished the trip, but trying to close off the TR, the following photos are not in strict order - but who cares?

First up, the modern reality in the "bush" - every aboriginal community I visited had a "big shop" - a supermarket to the rest of us. Apart from the usual and time-immemorial stocks of long-lasting necessities, nowadays there is actually fresh food available in the desert! :



Even the prices are reasonable!!

But where most activity was is always the fast food section - and these were also well stocked. Check out the following photo - the drumsticks at the top were really nice - at $5 a pop. And they couldn't serve them quick enough:



These two photos were at the big shop in Yuendemu. This is an aboriginal community a couple of hundred kms into the Tanami from Alice Springs. Anyone who follows such stuff would know that there was a fatal shooting yesterday there. I will not comment on that as it is a different issue, but it blew me away that even in such remote places you can by junk food and fresh lettuce.....

 

[drron]

I'll still go with scenario 1.

 

[juddles]

Yes, our car was way over-engineered. But as expressed before, this was part of the fun of the trip. Part of the kit was a pie warmer - to me the absolute pinnacle of frivolous cough. But still fun We didn't dare use it the most part as we had a dead aircon and cab temperatures were in the high 50's anyway - but once we fixed the aircon, on went the pie oven



Two plump Aldi pies, from our deep freezer, which were quite delicious

I like trees, and special ones especially - just another boab somewhere:



And after the Tanami, getting into Katherine a couple of days later was the first real river I enjoyed:

 

[juddles]

I'll still go with scenario 1.

Damn you, I like you. But now we have an evening scheduled involving finger nails and water-tight secrecy agreements.....

 

[juddles]

This what it is really all about - isolation and sunsets and being free: (sorry the photo is not in focus, but it aligned with my brain)

 

[juddles]

Heading back south we popped into Snowtown. I couldn't help but take this shot (look closely). For a town trying to "get over" the recent infamous past, why the hell does the main pub have barrels as their choice of tables?????

 

[juddles]

Back in Adelaide, after 7,600km, yet again we lovingly restored Ruby. I have never been a "car person", but this particular Landcruiser is now firmly placed in my heart:

 

[juddles]

And last photo from the bush - the amazing "red cans". I swore off Bundy many decades ago, but this "smooth red" product is great. And I have a fair bit of time and experience behind me when it comes to judging beverages When served at perfect temperature it is even better than a cold beer in the heat! We ran the fridges at -1degree - so water bottles would have just a feint icicle formation. But the red cans were spectacular at this temperature. Perfect balance of some rum taste, sweet but not too much, and thoroughly satisfying and thirst quenching. Everyday we looked forward to our appointed hour of first tasting - usually 5pm but we managed to mess with that due to border/time zone crossings - "confusion"

But, like beer, they are evil - I put on a hell of a lot of fat in those two weeks :/ We were never going to perish in the desrt from starvation!

But trust me, ice cold, these babies are absolutely stunningly GLORIOUS!!

 

[juddles]

Last relevant post - the return to Brisbane and my treatment as a P1.

I was travelling economy (paid ticket). Again, no upgrades.

When I sauntered into the Adelaide airport I found my way to the lounge - only a Qantas club there. I was not abnoxious, but probably the pained look on my face (seeing there is only a QP) was evident. I politely asked on entry if "this was the best lounge?" The guy at the desk was great - very friendly. He apologised and said yes it was, but he would love to get me a coffee from the CL lounge as it was so much better. I thanked him for the offer but declined. I am not particular about coffee.

A long stay at SYD - delayed flight which is always painful at the end of a journey - but got stuck into my comfort food - toast

 

[p--and--t]

$5 a pop for a drumstick

 

[juddles]

$5 a pop for a drumstick

And $7 for a Chiko Roll.

Cans of Coke about $3, but bottles of water must be subsidized - $1 flat rate at all the remote shops I visited.

 

[juddles]

What was cost of fuel?

Around the $2 mark for diesel. After your initial question about this I was going to try hard to furnish hard numbers/places, but got sidetracked due to other emotions

 

[juddles]

For anyone who is a camping/4WD enthusiast, I have been too busy to really detail things due to the pace and the absolute monster of a vehicle/trailer combo we used. But happy to answer specific questions now......

 

[RooFlyer]

Ah, and a new avitar thingy.

 

[RooFlyer]

I’ll lead off. What was the somewhat stubby aerial on the front for? UHF? Did you have any radio skeds, er, scheduled?

Or just for Macca on Sunday morning?

 

[juddles]

Trust you RooFlyer to ask the first question about the very thing I understood least. This is in part a philosophical thing - there are two very separate schools of thought here.

I am what one may describe as "old school" - before a trip I look at maps, commit much to memory, and when on the trip I just rely on such things as knowing "roughly" how far I have travelled in a certain direction. I am simply a non-believer in the latest techno stuff. To put it in another way, I distrust these gadgets. I prefer to correlate my understanding of the general terrain with what I think I have done. I am completely against the school of thought that takes whatever a gadget says and assume it to be correct....

Yes, this antenna is meant to be a miracle - and it did work to an extent. At all times during our trip it faithfully and correctly allowed the nav tools to plot our real position. This is, I admit, a miracle. In this it worked flawlessly. The GPS was absolutely precise. But my travelling companion believed too much in this - all the Hema maps stuff is ok, but nothing is truly up to date. I prefer to look out the window

As for scheduled radio contact, that is my bad. I prefer that noone ever knows where I am actually at

 

[JohnM]

$5 a pop for a drumstick

I dare say they know what sells easily out there... . Ask any GA pilot in the Kimberley what they get loaded up with to fly out to places like Kalumburu in the wet when access is only by air - pies, coke...