Day 6 (I think - am starting to lose track of time :-)) - driving from Tennant Creek to Curtin Springs

Today was a driving day. From waking up until diner we litterally did not do anything else. But, we ended up catching up time and even gaining time! Thanks to the helicopter yesterday and some serious stress today (see below), we are now officially no longer in a hurry. And this goes until end November for me and end December for Hanne. Pls take note of it now :-)

So, is the Track worth doing or not? Let me start with another math question that would imply a serious "no": we drove about 1,500km from Katherine to here (close to Uluru). Our monstertruck drinks Diesel like you would expect from a monster: 25 liter per 100km (!!!). Shock nr 1 for us. On top, you drive through Nomansland where you are 100% dependent on the few petrol stations that line the road. For the Handelsingenieurs amongst us: opportunity for some serious price setting. So, price per liter is 1,98 dollar. Shock nr 2 for us. Now you do the math... and find Shock nr 3. Flying is faster, more comfortable and... A lot cheaper!

But, if we would fly through it, then we would miss the following experiences. First of all, you need this road to truly understand the meaning of the "Outback" and to grasp the size of this island/country/continent. It is huge, really huge.

Secondly, the experience is awesome: waving at every car that drives in the opposite direction (to the point that I felt offended when someone didn't wave at me: how rude!), seeing huge eagles fly in the sky or skavenge a roadkill, smiling at kangaroos that consider to cross the road but cleverly wait until the car is gone, seeing an emoe (or at least a walking bird of similar size), seeing the one and only Wycliffe Well (known for the fact that "UFOs fly over with astonishing regularity" :-)), seeing the real Outback people and how they live and every now and spotting an amazing view like the Devil's Marbles. These latter are basically huge rocks in the shape of perfect marbles which the Aborigines believe are eggs from the Serpent Rainbow. I can adhere better to the name Devil's Marbles. I could picture him playing :-)

Thirdly, you do not feel more alive than when going through real stress like we did today. Stress 1 happened somewhere in the middle of the road when Hanne said "we have Diesel left for another 50km, when is the next station?". I looked up in the gps which said: in 240km... Then I checked in the Lonely Planet which didnt mention any either... Before you know it, you are counting how many bottles of water you have left (we had 6x2L and 10x500ml), how many cars pass by each hour (3 per hour) and until what time cars will still pass by (since nobody drives in the dark so have to be in the next town in time). Luckily the gps was wrong and the Lonely apparently doesnt mention all petrol stations :-).
Stress 2 happened later in the evening. As I said, they strongly recommend NOT to drive after the sun starts to set because that is when all wildlife takes over the streets and you do not want to hit a kangaroo at 120km/h (trust me). So, stress levels increased quite heavily when our planned resting place at 18h30 said "closed" and the sign said another 100km to drive. So, we had to drive at sunset (driving west to Uluru...) and a bit after. We met 2 kangaroos who fortunately decided to leave the street before we reached them, but no other issues.

So, is the Track worth doing? Yes! If you have time for it. Which brings me to where we are now: at Curtin Springs (the village is basically the size of this campsite) which Bosse recommended and so, right next to Mt Connors which looks almost exactly like Ayers Rock (Uluru) and fooled Hanne into taking quite some pictures :-)

Another 80km takes us to Uluru and Kata Tjuta, which is for tomorrow and a bit of the day after!

Ciao mates.