The Road.

I wrote this at the end of the first days travel.  Hopefully you will be able to appreciate what I am trying to signify here.  This is my impression of the road between Hyden and Norseman, Western Australia.

The road. Long. Very long. Very straight; well, mostly straight. As far as the eye could see; one single, solitary road. On either side, sick and dying land; not a single animal or bird to be seen or heard. Desolate.

 

A little ahead of us and a little behind us were the two other vehicles travelling with us. Suddenly we are enveloped in a thick, swirling cloud of dust, obliterating our vision as the car ahead hits the dirt road. We quickly drop back till the car in front is only visible as a dust cloud ahead. No doubt the car to the rear had a similar experience, and can only recognise two dust clouds ahead. Eventually we notice that the dust cloud ahead has disappeared, and so has the one following, leaving us alone in this inhospitable, almost alien landscape. The eerie silence is broken only by the sound of our own car engine.

  View to the front,

and to the rear.

Each rise brings hope of a changing vista, but heralds only more, much more, of the same long, straight, dusty road, broken only rarely by an oncoming vehicle; the only other sign of life. Until now there has been no indication of distance to our destination and I had just remarked on this when we saw a sign indicating N 200. We had only completed 100 kilometres, one third of the distance, and this could have been a source of disappointment had we not already worked that out. Still the road stretches ahead, lonely and dusty, with still no sign of our travelling companions. Gasp!! What is this? Life. A single, solitary, dusty lizard crossing the single, solitary, dusty road.

 

The road is long; very long. Very long, very dusty, and mainly straight. Aha! A road sign indicating a winding road ahead. Around a fairy significant bend, then a long straight road ahead. Perhaps a single, solitary, honest to goodness bend constitutes a winding road in these parts.

 

Nature calls and necessitates a stop. Very soon our companions to the rear catch up with us, a very welcome sight.

Soon after resuming our journey we come across our leading group who have stopped to wait for us. A quick chat and we are on our way again. N 100. I know at least one person would have been disappointed to see that.

 

As we continue along the long, straight and still dusty road, we come across a more welcome sign, N 50. Our journey is almost over and not long after the road becomes less straight as it wends its way through the stark, dead, whiteness of salt pans on either side. The road is very narrow here, and I imagine trying to pass an oncoming vehicle and sliding off the road to sink into the salty mire. Vehicle tracks on the salt pans soon prove my imagination wrong, but I still can’t shake my feelings of nervousness and I really wouldn’t want to be travelling this road in the dark, especially alone.

 

Bliss: we see a town ahead and know that our journeys end has arrived. More importantly we are on a sealed road again and can leave the dust behind. Today’s journey is but a mere hop, skip and jump in the greater, 5,600 kilometre journey we have undertaken; from

Perth

in

Western Australia

, to Townsville in

Queensland

.

 

The fun has just begun.

That is enough for today.  I will tell more of our journey, and show more photo's over the coming days.

Take care, and happy knitting everyone.

Comments

[sue]

Glad to know that you had a wonderful trip apart from the boring road trip in some parts. It was a bit hard to read the print, just letting you know in case it is my eyesight failing me!

[Kate]

Your description reminds me of trips to my PIL's place, 60km out of Hay. 2 1/2 hours in the car, through flat, flat country, with fewer and fewer trees, and more scrubby saltbush. One dreadful year when the drought was really bad we stopped to take pictures of some paddocks that had been overgrazed, leaving dust piling up in little dunes against the fences.
The distance and the light are the only things I notice missing since we moved to Tassie - out in the flat country you can step outside and feel your soul expanding toward the horizons.

[Shannon B]

Man, I need a drink just reading that.