22 - 25
<
In the background is the last sign of ashphalt we would see for over 2000km. Overlanding from Coober Pedy to Alice Springs via the scenic route.
After a dusty beginning following a local bus dragging tyres to maintain the road to Mabel Creek we arrived at the beginning of the Anne Beadell Highway proper.
Central Australia is named the Land of the Lizard for good reason. We came across many.
Golden afternoon light and the last patch of road on day one's journey to Tallaringa Well. It is here that I assume many turn back to Coober Pedy, broken by the first day and its introduction to corrugations, Anne Beadell style.
As close as we got to a camel on the road. This big fella was on his own and we didn't see them much.
Their impact on the landscape is undeniable.
The Anne Beadell Highway; plunging westward into the heart of the Australian outback.
We never expected the amount or diversity of vegetation all along the track. A constantly evolving mosaic of arid habitat zones seemingly shaped by the fickle forces of nature and the inexorable march of the dunes. An amazing place.
Open desert country and the only tracks ahead of us are animal tracks atop the sandy corrugations.
A once "gunbarrell" straight track has been shoved this way and that over the years by the encroaching vegetation. A surreal experience; desert hedgerows.
The condition of the track over dunes was beautiful. No big holes.
Long tunnels through the thick vegetation give a view of the rubble and ruin of the track going forward.
Half way to nowhere. On the map the 270km from here back to Coober Pedy seems like nothing. In a car you make friends with every corrugation, of which there is an unstoppable torrent.
Anne's Corner marker. One of the few remaining original markers from when the track was constructed in the late 1950s. There are many replicas along the track.
An ex Australian Army Land Rover 110 Regional Force Surveillance Vehicle. It is the perfect vehicle for us. Comfortable on rough terrain, solid construction and well looked after, plenty of storage, flexible platform and simple to fix. Come on... it's a Land Rover, what's not to love.
Thumbs up for Mamungari Conservation Park. An absolutely spectacular patch of country.
These are the scenes that stopped us in our tracks. We would find an open stretch of road so we were easily visible and wander around with our cameras in a kind of spellbound stupor... freed from the rattle and shake of moving down the highway, the still serenity of the desert was like a drug.
Roadside splendour.
A road junction about five days solid drive from the nearest school bus route. A more lonesome give way sign you have never seen... the chances of passing traffic are slim; we didn't cross traffic on the road for eight days.
Crossing an ancient lake-bed. A remnant of an inland sea, a mirage of a long lost landscape. The Serpentine Lakes are one of the readily visible features of the Great Victoria Desert from the air, running for about 100km along the WA/SA border. As there are no river systems, these lakes only fill with local rainfall.
A road verge like no other. Well, few others.
Elevation changes are greater in the norther part of the Great Victoria Desert.
A desert vista along the Connie Sue Highway.
The far east of Western Australia - remote tracks and a carpet of wildflowers
A group of thirsty young Emus on the march cross country looking for water.
Towards the Warburton Range; the northern section of the Connie Sue highway has a lot of sections where the sandy corrugations are armoured with gibber stones to make them extra hard.
Driving these roads is a great challenge and a great joy.
Beautiful stretches of this road that corkscrews its way forward into the ever changing landscape.
>
HOME