Definitely not Kookaburras. When I woke up there were many
birds - one tiny grayish bird was the screamer, and then there were also white cockatoo.
What some people have in cages at home is happily flying around here. Much better so.
After about two hours of
unpacking and early morning photography I decided to head northwest, to the red sands.
This is not the first time that I am driving on the left side of the road, but there are
some peculiarities with a car that has right side steering. For instance, you look into
the rear view mirror and you see the door. Or you signal and the wipers go on; if at least
the washers worked so that one could get rid of the resulting mess. With the occasional
confusion about which button does what, I realized what I knew long ago, just didn't want
to believe: this place is BIG. Oh boy am I gonna get the frequent flyer miles through my
gas bill! This may be even more so if I continue assuming the Sun in the South at noon, as
I did today, until I realized that the only thing still valid here was that it rises in
the East. This way I drove through vast grassy plains that make Illinois look like the
Himalayas, and then again over hills. On the map it looks like 5cm or so, but it was a
whole day's trip; relaxed, sure, but you have to flip the map twice to see Alice Springs
on the same scale. I think I must increase my 3-Mt "real" trip to at least 6-Mt.
The scenery was remarkably
changing. Mostly dry in the best California style, so from this point nothing to make me
happy; but I am not planning on moving over here. The trees are interesting and the
overall look is like nothing I have seen before. Minutes later you find yourself climbing
up hills on roads that made me feel really homey. Only a thousand words could describe a
picture, and you sure don't want to read that much.
At a gas station I was
brought back to reality: 11L/100km on average, and that by what I would consider tickling
the gas pedal. Admittedly my Accord does not accelerate as well between 1000 and 1500rpm
(it much rather stands still), but I can get 7L/100km (if I want, but usually I don't).
Once I even drove 1250km on one gas tank of an Audi 100. Here it seems I am being punished
for my earlier sins. Another reason not to go crazy and to nicely stay at the east coast
instead.
Following the advice of a
friend I visited the Parkes radio telescope, with its 200ft diameter quite a landmark in
the fields. I arrived just 5 minutes before the visitor center closed so I didn't get that
much to see, but I found another car unable to stop from 140km/h as I was trying to make
it in time. I had a brief chat with the lady at the center - she explained that the
differently heavy Coke cans were put on display by 10-yr. old students to demonstrate how
heavy a can would be on Jupiter, Pluto etc. She pointed out that one should not be able to
lift the Sun Coke, but I guess they didn't want to fill it with Plutonium to make it even
heavier than with Lead.
My camp for the night is just a railroad across the main highway 32 (on which you count 0.0457 cars per minute at this time). I shot my first 4*5 exposures, which made me realize that my camera was a bit broken. It spontaneously changes focus and tilt & shift, i.e. pretty much everything. Where to get spare parts for a 4*5 in the middle of nowhere is questionable, but at least I had something to blame :-)