Crossing A Continent

The Down Under Tour spans an almost 3000 kilometer long road: the Stuart Highway.
This highway is the only connection between southern and northern Australia.
It crosses deserts and leads past salt lakes. The famous red rocks of the red continent
present a breath-taking scenery. Camels, Kangaroos and opal diggers roam along the
highway. It is the artery of the Australia’s red middle and infamous for the so called
“road trains”: 40 meter long trucks that provide the few inhabitants of this area with
the necessary. Gas stations and road stops only crop up by the 350 kilometer mark.
A few of the exciting tour stops:

Coober Pedy, or translated to Aborigini: “white man in a whole”. This is where the
opal diggers search the earth for the valuable stones. They partly live in caves
because of the unbearable heat during daytime. The entire
area with its opal mines and dug up dirt hills compares
to a moon landscape. Many science fiction movies
have been shot here, The Dune amongst them.

In southern Australia the highway continues through the Great Victoria Desert, past
Sturts Stone Desert and the Simpson Desert, and many salt lakes, Lake Eyre being the largest.

The northern territory has the most famous rock/mountain of Australia. Mythical Ayers Rock, “ULURUN” in Aborigini. It is 250 kilometers off the route. Next is Alice Springs, the only “real” town on the route. It is an oasis surrounded by thousands of square meters of desert. The tour follows the Todd River in Alice Springs and crosses the MacDonnel Range. The Todd River carries water every other century or so, nevertheless, yearly regattas are held in the dry riverbed.

The Highway circles the impressive rock formation of the Devils Marbles consisting of gigantic rock balls in a wide bend. Three Ways has the only road off east and to Queensland. Thermal springs in Mataranka will help the Earthflyer and camera crew relax in the evening.

The route crosses the Kakadu national park that came to fame through the Crokodile Dundee movies. Darwin marks the last goal of the tour. The isolated, tropical town is closer to Jakarta and Singapore than to Melbourne and Sydney and completes the crossing of the continent.