The Sandover Highway – 1/19/2013
Jan 20th, 2013 by admin
The plan is to start heading east and the route can either be all the way to Tennant Creek and turn east on the Barkly Highway or turn of the Stuart Highway about 40 kilometers north of Alice Springs and head northest into the outback. With the new repairs done to the car, we decide to take the Sandover Highway.
The only real unknown is fuel there are only 2 fuel stops between the Stuart Highway turnoff and where we join the Barkly Highway and the second stop may require us to us some of our extra fuel that we are carrying in the jerry cans on the roof rack. It the first stop at Almparra is closed or doesn’t have fuel, we’ll have a problem.
The Sandover Highway isn’t used much. It’s there to support the Aboriginals who live in the area. When we start driving we notice that there aren’t many tracks on the road surface which is a bright brick red. The previous night it had rained a substantial amount leaving the road covered whit puddles and the surface freshly packed by the rain.
Normally, the surface would be kicking up huge dust clouds as we passed. Today, there’s no dust at all. Just a single tire track from the one car that has been on the road since the rain. It’s already very hot, approaching 40°C, but there’s still puddles and no dust. The problem is the wash-boarding, or corrugation, that develops on these dirt roads.
The corrugation just rattles the car incessantly. It’s maddening and we know it’s not doing the car any good at all. Plus, there are small gullies that developed in the side of the road when the water was running off the crown of the road. They’re particularly bad because you can’t see them until you’re almost in them and they jar the car even at slower speeds.
A technique we use to try to avoid the wash-boarding or corrugation is to drive with the outside wheels of the car on the opposite side of the ditch that runs along the edge of the road. The wash-boarding usually doesn’t go all the way to the edge of the road surface so sometimes you can avoid the wash-boarding by straddling the ditch on either side of the road. Sometimes you just has to slow down and suffer.
The puddles and the water in the ditches just make a bad ride worse. The only good thing so far is there’s no other traffic so we can go anywhere on the road to try to improve the ride.
The bad thing is there’s no other traffic. We’re a bit concerned that there may be some water crossing and that there may have been enough rain for them to be a problem for us. We’re not too happy about trying to do water crossings alone. If we misjudge the depth we could have a very serious problem.
We’ve seen an occasional car but we’re going to have to do more than 400 miles on this road and there’s no reason to believe that any car we’ve seen has come all the way from the other end of the Sandover. At least there’s no crocodiles down this far. They are a problem in water-crossings farther north.
The road continues this way absolutely dead straight across the outback. The section had more vegetation than farther south and the recent rain has given everything a beautiful green color, from the pale green of the desert grasses to the dark green of the leaves on the small trees and bushes.
Soon we stop to lower the air pressure in the tires. The wash-boarding is inceesant and it’s hard to believe that we won’t break something if we continue. We’re only doing about 30 mph and the pounding is terrible. And the beauty of the countryside immediately disappears when we open the doors and the brilliant sunlight and the temperatures now well into the 40’s brung back the reality of driving through the desert outback.
Almparra is the first fuel stop at about 180 kilometers. We have planty of fuel but we need to fill up in order to make it to the second stop at Alpurrurulam another 327 kilometers away. We pull in to the fuel pumps and the store is closed. The sign on the door says that the store is open on Saturday and Sunday only 9AM to 12PM. We hadn’t even considered that possibility.
There are a couple of young Aboriginal men nearby and they tell us that the store is closed but the own lives just up the road and they think he is home. Just up there, the house gate by the trailer. I walk up to the gate which is chained locked. Pound on the metal gate and yell “Hello” over the fence. Nothing.
Walk back to the young men. They say that they think that he is home. “His name is Neal. Call his name. Maybe he’ll come out.” Back up the road. “Hello, Neal. I’d like to buy fuel.” I’m pretty sure that he’s there – the gate is chained from the inside.
I walk back and ask if he has a phone. They don’t know but they think he’s there. (Of course, they may just be fooling with a WhiteFella.) “But maybe he doesn’t want to get up.” Guess not. Back to John for a powwow.
Without fuel, we can’t continue on the Sandover Highway without more fuel. The fuel that we have in the fuel tank and the fuel in the jerry cans aren’t enough to get the 397 kilometers to Alpurrurulam and still have enough to get to the Barkly if there’s no fuel there.
We really don’t want to be stranded on the Sandover. Not enough traffic. No trucks at all. And the cars that we do see are somewhat on the dicey side. Plus, most of the Aboriginals we see are already towing a car that has run out of fuel. Not much hope from them.
Fortunately, we don’t have to backtrack to the Stuart. There’s an escape road the heads north and then west to the Stuart. We have just enough fuel in the fuel tank to get to Morris Downs which is supposed to have fuel. It’ll be tight but if we use the fuel in the jerry cans we can get to the Stuart and a couple of fuel stations there.
The road just continues endlessly with wash-boarding, ditches and blood red ground. This isn’t a gravel road like the Oodnadatta. This is a dirt road and the surface is lousy. Occasionally, the surface smooths out but as soon as you start to think that you can bring up the speed, the bumps come back and the speed goes back down.
Of course, we need to keep the speed down to help the gas mileage. The faster we go the worse the gas mileage. Duh! The surface is actually forcing us to do what we need to do. But it makes the road seem endlessly long. Time for the big boy pants.
Finally, we get to the Morris Downs turnoff and I miss the turn. Slow down pull off and make a u-turn. The next time I hit the brakes, the pedal hits the floor. Oh, crap. As the bowl of petunias said in H2G2,, “Not again?”
Yes, again. The pedal feels exactly like it did in Brisbane. Only it’s a very long drive to Gosford and Nigel at the Midas for repairs. I pump the pedal a few times and suddenly, I have a hard pedal again. This is very weird. This is not what happened in Brisbane. It’s 2 kilometers to the fuel station and as I drive I keep trying the brake pedal and it seems fine.
As we pull into the fuel station, actually some homes and work shops that look more like a cattle station than a fuel station, we see a sign saying “No cars beyond this point.” Not a common sign at fuel stations. I get out and walk up to a house, knock on the door, call “Hello” but no answer. There’s another house a bit farther in, and as I walk up, a man comes out with a 16 month old boy toddling behind him. He asks what I need. I tell him fuel. “Okay. I’ll get the key.” Woo-hoo!
I go back to the car, start it, back up to turn around, step on the brake pedal. And it goes to the floor. Screw it. Get fuel first. Then fix the brakes. Life is uncertain. Damned uncertain.
I turn around drive up t the pump and step on the pedal and the pedal is hard and the car stops fine. Double-damned uncertain today. We get the 20 liters of fuel which costs AUD50 (we are not complaining) and head for the Stuart highway.
It’s still another 100 kilometers to the Stuart but mercifully in a few kilometers the road turns to pavement and the wash-boarding ceases. (We’ll take any miracle we can get.) The road runs straight into the sun and finally, an intersection sigh appears and there’s the Stuart. What a relief.
Since we left Morris Downs, the brake pedal has been fine. We stop at Wycliffe Well (the center of UFO activity in Australia – don’t ask, I have no idea) for fuel. We pump tires back to normal pressure and leave. The brakes are fine.
We’re headed for Wauchope (pronounced Walk Up – don’t ask me about that either) based on a recommendation from the man at Morris Downs. A great pub he said. That’s more than enough for us.
(He also said another thing that got my attention. The area around Morris Downs got 27mm of rain the night before. That’s over an inch of rain over night. In the desert. No wonder the raod was a mess. He felt that we could very well have water crossing problems on the farther stages of the Sandover. Well, we couldn’t do it without fuel and maybe that was for the best.)
We get to Wauchope and immediately head for the pub. “Do you have any rooms. A twin with 2 beds.” “Yes.” “Good, we’ll take it. And 2 beers. Have food?” “Yep. Here’s the menu.” First things first.
The bar is run by an Irish guy who ran out of money in Australia and ended up here(!!) and a young Australian girl who is just being trained by thye Irishman to cover when he leaves for Alice and the fun in town on Australia Day, January 27th. He’s very interesting and she’s very young and chatty. She turns out to be 26 and she’s working here to save money for a 4 month long trip to the States in May with her BFF and 2 other girls. They both contend that they can’t understand the other’s accent.
They’re going first to Austin to see the Aussie V8 Supercars who are racing at the F1 track. And then they’re hopping about to Memphis, Nashville, Graceland (of course), Alabama (?), New Orleans, the obligatory stop in Las Vegas before ending in Los Angeles and the trip home. Enthusiastic but so young. They’ll have a ball.
We have some more beer and then dinner. Chat with the bartender. Another very interesting bloke on a trip with hundreds of interesting blokes.
It’s gotten dark and John goes to move the Cherokee into the secure lot behind the pub. I finish up my beer and say goodnight to the bartender. Look for our shipping container, err, motel room. Back to the bar for directions. Finally, find John. The pedal failed when he moved the car. “Did you brake while going backward or do a sharp left turn?” “ Both.” “ That’s what I was doing when it failed for me.” Who the hell knows what that means.
John has the shop manual out and we discuss possible causes for a while. But it’s obvious that we can’t do anything tonight. Get some sleep and attack it new in the morning.
What a day. Goodnight. No stargazing tonight.
Obi-wan
3 Responses to “The Sandover Highway – 1/19/2013”
Sounds like a couple of challenging days, hang in there! Just like all gamblers, it is good to know when to walk away from the table. Good for you guys…
After re-reading the post, the brake situation isn’t as serious as it may appear on first reading. And, later, I’m going to post what we did to fix it. After the fix, yesterday, we had no problems.
P
Welcome news, thanks!