-- From Cooper Creek to Alice Springs

The tracklog 
From Cooper Creek to Dajarra
From 02/08/2010 to 03/08/2010 

The track from Birdsville to Mungeranie Roadhouse -Birdsville Track- was a muddy cesspool making the painful driving and the jerked progression, succession of channels creating water maps with a depth from 20 to 40 cm. Finally the track had been cut since ten years with a detour towards the Cooper Creek Ferry.

By arriving at the edge of the river I discovered a ferry on other bank. Which was not my stupor to note its narrowness. With the boatmen we measured the interior of the ferry, 2.6m then the width of my truck, 2.5m. I presented my truck in front of the ferry, it was necessary to dismount the rear view mirrors and the indicators of wing. After loading of the truck it was necessary to measure the draft of the ferry to cross and finally the age of the captain. In front of all these constraints, I gave up to load it with a tolerance of 5cm on each side. By moving it back  I remembered a tirade by Clint Eastwood killing an adversary: “The wise man is that who knows his limits”.

As well the informative signposts as Visitor Centre in Birdsville did not inform me, the only data related to the weight of 10t and the length of 7,8m, but any mention of the width. My truck is strictly 2.5m one needed a shoe-horn to insert it in this shoe box. How great was my happiness to head again to Mt Isa, that is to say 1129 km.

The next day on the return by Birdsville Track another memory come back to me. In the news, Halla San, Nicolas Bouvier quotes one of his friends monk going to the Heinsa monastery in Korea by “The Old Shit Track Again”, name given to the track rising to the monastery due to the dejections of monks during their climb. In Birdsville I washed my truck at the exit of the city on a spot judiciously placed for that. Then I carried on my road up to Cacoory.

The return towards Mt Isa head again through Bedourie, Boulia and Dajarra where I bivouacked little before the village.

In Mt Isa I did not last for ever to carry on my road towards Alice Springs by Barkly Hwy with a bivouac at Soudan.

The tracklog 
From Soudan to Taylor Creek
From 04/08/2010 to 06/08/2010 

The following day was a long driving day on Barkly Hwy again up to Three Ways then on Stuart Hwy to the bivouac at Taylor Creek. On the move I stopped to take some pictures in particular in Tennant Creek ex-city mining where gold was discovered in 1932 but quickly exhausted. In Devil's Marbles granite boulder have the colour of the red ground.

The tracklog 
From Taylor Creek to Alice Springs
From 07/08/2010 to 07/08/2010 

The only event of this morning on the way to Alice Springs was the third crossing of the Tropic of Capricorn. By arriving downtown I looked fort a workshop to service my truck which had made thirty thousand kilometres from Perth on January 11, an appointment was taken on Monday morning. The city did not appear particularly welcome. After a visit at the Visitor Centre and shopping at a supermarket I was heading to bivouac at the MacDonnell Range CP.

Sunday August 08 in one half-day I visited sights of the city. Araluen Preccinct gathers the main cultural buildings. The exhibitions are particularly remarkable. Museum of Central Australia exposes the evolution of the area since the Big-bang as well the geological point of view as paleontological putting in scene the first explorers. Aboriginal Art Exhibitions gathers modern paintings of the local artists. Finally Central Australian Aviation Museum houses the first plane of RFDS as well as others duly renovated.

Royal Flying Doctor Service -RFDS- was created in 1928 in Cloncurry. The base of Alice Springs covers a radius of 600 km equivalent to the surface of England with 4 planes, 12 pilots and 3 mechanics. The presentation of the service and the visit of the museum were enthralling. Finally a walk on Todd Mall completed the visit of this city in the desert.

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