TRAVERSE 51
TRAVEL - AUSTRALIA
MARIA SCHUMACHER
SALTY DREAMS
After circling the quaint green island of Tasmania , it was time to head north through the fabled Red Centre , along a highway whose bends are many kilometres apart . To us Europeans such a long , straight road was unheard of , and we were excited to spend hours chasing the same tiny point where it disappears over the horizon .
Predictably it soon became boring , and we began to crave the dirt roads of the desert . So far , we ’ d only pulled into the desert to find camp at night , but we wanted more . My partner Aidan and I were exploring Australia with two bikes more than capable of a bit of off-roading , he on his ratty 2004 BMW F650GS , me on my nimble little Honda NX250 .
During lunch at a pullout next to the Woomera Prohibited Area we pulled up our map . A space launch interrupted our musings with a big boom , leaving a mushroom cloud on the other side of the shimmering lake separating us from the launch site . Apropos lakes , the map showed some lakes in the desert west of here and Aidan remembered having heard that there are supposed to be dry salt lakes around . Maybe this was them and we might be able to see them from the dirt road that leads first west towards Kingoonya , then south .
A large sign at the turn-off onto the dirt road warned us of the dangers of driving into the desert , listing everything we should carry . How bad could it really be ? Most items seemed overkill or just were not an option on the bikes . But we would only ride in as far as half our petrol , then turn around . Planning to get drinking water in Kingoonya we figured we had all we needed for that distance .
Normally we ’ d been filling our 10-litre water canister at petrol station taps instead of buying bottled
TRAVERSE 51