Thought I’d post something from last year’s trip from Darwin straight down the centre to Adelaide.

GeeDay... Another news flash from your 4en CorroSPINdant... AKA ... A NewYorkerDownUnder... latest haps and mishaps on the road including a sleep in an old Opal mine, a look at a 120 Mill Year Old fossilised Opal fish [very cool], and a dust storm so thick I could only see the headlights of oncoming cars... all in the land of the Opal Miner and Greek Diner... Coober Pedy! [there are 5 restaurants in Coober of which 3 are Greek and the other 2 are closed!].

When in Alice I tried to do the Reptile and Croc park but it was closed... seems a local psycho kid went on a rampage last week killing most of the smaller reptiles and feeding them to the Crocs! In a weird way I was amused to learn that acts of depraved indifference are not only the province of urban existence!

Then there was the Police Escort after the gang fight in Todd Mall in Alice and as luck would have it... right outside the restaurant I was dining in! Seems one drunken mob of Aboriginals had a score to settle with another drunken mob of Aboriginals. I think someone stole someone's beer or something like that. Whatever it was these poor people are in one major state of mess and misery. I learned early on in this long ride game that drunken into oblivion they come stumbling into you in the pursuit of a hand out. The locals say the military intervention was a waste of time because it did not get to the root of the problems. Oh well you'll never never know if you never never go!

I had an interesting experience on my way into Alice. I met some northern bound travelers in Tennant Creek who told me about a flash cyclone storm in Alice that day that lasted for about 30 minutes. They said it leveled trees, raised roofs and threw debris all around the Alice. They said the locals insisted there had never been anything like it, with winds so fierce the rain was falling almost on the horizontal! Thinking this storm had had its 30 minutes of fame [storms get more] I continued heading into Alice. However, about 100 clicks out I rode into winds so hard the bike was leaning over like it was going around a corner on the track at Phillip island... only I was going in a straight line!

The wind then started changing direction hitting me from the left, then the right, then behind... kind of like the invisible wall of wind you hit when coming up inside the wind draft directly behind a road train that's moving at a decent pace... Only there was no Road train!!!! I was slapped from side to side and in less than a heart beat found myself sitting in the right hand side of the right hand lane [I started my little flight on the left in the left] and not knowing how I got there!!!

I had been picked up by a whirly whirly and dropped right across the road in a heartbeat! I watched it continue off into the scrub ahead. I thought about stopping but of course there is nowhere to stop! I slowed right down and watched as Road trains weaved like the drivers were new years eve drunks, meandering from side to side and back again,... i was sure one in particular was going to topple as the tail payload of its 4 payload long train kept weaving on and off the shoulder into the dirt and back on again!

That's one experience I don't want to live thru again!