2008/08/04

Road trip from Adelaide to Perth

Road trip from Adelaide to Perth, 5/28~5/31.

After staying in Adelaide for several days, Gavin and Philip would give me a lift to Perth. They just finished the short-term work in South Australia. And I? Honestly, I'd done nothing here. Uploaded photos, wrote blogs, went to the museum and art gallery, and walked on the neat and tidy streets of this regular city laid out by William Light.


Light's Vision
"The reason that led me to fix Adelaide where it is I do not expect to be generally understood or calmly judged of at present. My enemies, however, by disputing their validity in every particular, have done me the good service of fixing the whole of the responsibility upon me. I am perfectly willing to bear it; and I leave it to posterity, and not to them, to decide whether I am entitled to praise or to blame."

(I compressed those sentences into one: I don't care what you think about.)

Without saying, I met some backpackers. a South Korean guy, taught me something about Korean language; a Mali negro (located in west Africa), interested in the chopsticks used by me (I lost them here); a Scottish girl, crochetd her first scarf and would travel to the Great Ocean Road; a New Zealand guy, had many requirements of a hostel; a Dutch boy, went three-day tour in Ululu; a drunk Australian teenager, disturbed me on Rundle mall stree at deep night; etc.. Well, that's enough.



The road trip from Adelaide to Perth is about 2900km, it was:
1. 5/28, I would go from Adelaide to Port Augusta by myself, and meet Gavin and Philip there. About 400km.
2. From Port Augusta to Perth is about 2500km, divided by three is about 800km for each day. 5/29 arrived Border Village which is rightly near to the border line between South Australia and Western Australia. 5/30 arrived Southern Cross. 5/31 arrived Perth.
So totally it would take me 4 days.

Most of the time we just sit in the car blankly staring outside, and driving driving driving. On the road, actually honestly really, there's nothing to be seen. We listened to the music, played a game "I spied with my little eyes", watched the invariable scenes of two sides, and ate all fruit because they couldn't be carried pass the border.



Roughly after every three or four hundred kilometers, you could see a small village. I don't remember whether I saw any village whilst near to the border. Maybe they're just places with a petrol station and a grocery selling everying including food, newspaper, potato chips, and drinks. I wondered if there are people living in such a remote savage terrain but who knows.


Philip went to whale watching by this aircraft.


There are no hostels on the road, I mean, no kitch to cook meal. So we had lunch and dinner in a roadhouse or in a bar.



Border Village, which is in the middle of Adelaide and Perth, and at the same time it's extraordinarily far away from cites. And...the petrol here is most expensive.


Western Australian has more strict rules about quarantine. Especially you have to drop any fruit.


We crossed Nullarbor Plain but couldn't see the famous nymph(naked woman) running.


We drove on the longest straight road and also it's the most boring segment so far.


So Philip boot up the laptop computer and watched a film.


On the road, occassionally there were dead animals, kangaroos, emus, other birds. (no photos, I don't make you spew.)


However the most shocking thing to me was that someone tried to cross the Nullarbor Plain by "bicycle". What an idiot, oops, I mean, what a great activity. (Sorry, no photos of those brave cyclists.) You can get a certificate after crossing(except by airplane).



We arrived Southern Cross, lived in a country bar. I learnt a new word here: skimpy. Well, in this bar, there's a waitress wearing underwear only. Woo. I had a good sleep here while Gavin and Philip went to a party with local residents.


Original plan was to arrive Perth at daytime. But Gavin returned back to the accommodation "afternoon", so we arrived the destination of this road trip at night. Lived in a house rent by their friends. That's amazing, they'd known each other since childhood and now gathered together in Aussie where is so distant from the homeland.

Finally we were there, Perth.

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