My clothes were dried out, except for the bike pant pocket where I forgot to take a hanky out - doh!!! It's amazing how much water, road trains pick up behind them. We've all seen pics of road trains and the plume of dust following them. Imagine that plume as water. On the last leg to Coober Pedy my first road train I encountered on the wet roads looked pretty as it was coming towards me. Big long truck with plumes of white and the glowing sun in the background. But when the truck passes you, that nice plume of water is about 3 bath loads of water. It hits you at 200 km per hr in the chest, head, arms and bike and it's force tries to push you out of your seat. After the 1-2 seconds of shear terror you come through the other side feeling like you had done 1 round with Ali. In fact my first word was F#%%^. The many road trains that followed, I ducked very low under the windscreen. The bike received the pressure wave of water which was just a matter of moving the bike to the left hand side of my lane, aiming it to the centre as the pressure wave hits (as you don't want the wave to push you left, off the road) and when it comes, duck and hold on tight and hope there is not another road train following with another drenching.
As I passed the NT border, I got excited as I passed the 130km speed sign. So 154 km is not a loss of license and I upped the cruise control. To be honet, the first few minutes at that speed is quite nerve racking. Higher engine noise curtesy of a higher RPM, those white lines in the middle really do speed past and your level of concentration goes through the roof. But after awhile, the senses seem to get acustomed to the change in speed and it's business as usual. Whilst cruising, I noticed a car on the left, off the shoulder of the road and two people standing just off the right hand side of the road. Cruise off, slowing down to 104 km and via hand gestures, asking the couple if everything is OK. I got the thumbs up and then a highway patrol car came the other direction with the radar gun on the side window. Relief that I slowed down for the car and I must admit a sly grin on my dial. From then on, I cruised at 140-145 km. The last 200km into Alice Springs city took 1.5 hrs. Gave me enough time to visit the motorcycle shop to organise fitting of new tyres the following morning.
Alice was the place that Pete and I would catch up. He left Darwin as I flew home and he visited Kakadu, Katherine, Daly Waters and Devils Marbles. Pete had already booked us into a caravan park and all I had to do was set up tent.
On Sat, the Alice had the famous Henly on Todd races. It's bascially a weekend where the locals, near and far, get together and have some fun. ie Yacht racing on the dry Todd River, Filling 44 Gal drums with sand and more. Great atmosphere and everyone joined in, barracking for their favourtire team.
Maxi Yachts racing - with 8-9 crewmen running hard.
Navy had a great cheer quad. :)
Kids bashing their mates into the water
Hard work. First to fill up a 44 Gal drum with sand.
On Sat we noticed that a police car and police man was outside every liquor outlet we passed in Alice. In the evening, I purchased a bottle of Sthrn Comfort and asked the policeman why are they doing this today? It came as a shock, but over the past 3 months, everyday at every liquor outlet, a policeman would be there from open to closing time. According to the police bosses, crime incidents have decreased from 300 per day to 100 and the violent crimes around the liquor outlets dropped significantly. Speaking with the attendant in the shop, she was really happy to see the police there and confirmed a reduction in violent crime. Seems like a complete waste of resources, ie just standing there for 8-10 hrs, but the stats indicate it's working. Bravo for the police and other agencies trying different things. Note - the liquor outlet I went into, was a grocery store with a cage on the side. Padlocked and blacked out. I asked - "Where's the grog?" and the attendant opened the cage and allowed me to browse beer. But as I was after a spirit, they had to unlock other cabinets. Quite sad it has come to this.
We left early and I took Pete to some of the spots on the West MacDonnell ranges. Below is a pic of Simpsons Gap.
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