Deane & Jack's Motorcycle Trip in
Australia and New Zealand
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Deane & Jack's Motorcycle Trip in Australia and New Zealand |
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April 6 - Alice Springs to Tennant Creek, Northern Territory 520 km (322 Miles) |
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When they say that all of Australia closes down through the Easter weekend, they mean it! We are in the little town of Tennant Creek, a mining town at some previous time, and all of the businesses in the one-street town are closed! The only businesses that are open are the two gas stations, one at each end of town, and the motels. That's it! No restaurants, and no grocery stores. I guess we make the best pick we can from the gas station junk food for supper. Our ride was pretty uneventful, with the road going straight north for the entire ride. One interesting thing I have been going to report is that there are solar cells mounted near a little building, every so many kilometers, (maybe fiber optic cable repeaters), and guess which direction the solar cells are pointing. - North!! Kind of strange to us North Americans, but down here the sun is north of us. Also, we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn today, so that means we are officially in the "Tropics". Both Jack and I thought that our scenery today would just be more desert. But that wasn't the case. Just after we left Alice Springs, the scenery on either side consisted of trees, bushes, and lots of very large grass, all relatively green. Through a couple of places the green was very bright and recently watered. One of these was labeled Ryan's Swamp, so maybe water drained down into that particularly, The relatively green plants stayed that for the 300 miles we rode. - Really surprising here in the "Outback", at least to us.
We stopped at lunch at a little Roadhouse that vies with Alamogordo for the "UFO" capital of the country, with many sightings and some people who went for a ride with the little green people. They even have little aliens that look like those in Alamogordo!
Tomorrow we turn East, as we head back to the northeast coast. We have to make 900 miles in the next two days, because there simply is only one motel to stay at for the 900 miles. |
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