Day 7 - Camooweal to Daly Waters
Having spent a lot of time in between Yulara, Alice Springs and a two week hike across the MacDonnell ranges, I've had my fill of 'The Red Centre' and was eager to smash through this leg of the journey and get into the tropics.
Quick Stats
- 6.5 hours on bike
- 825 km
- 3182 km total
Early start to the day, I ditch my donga behind Queensland's first and last pub and am off on the highway to the NT. Its not long before I get there either.
With the entry to the NT comes my favourite part of this section - 130 km/h speed limits. A speed the MT-09 and its triple absolutely love to cruise at.
Couple hours down the road I get to the Barkly Homestead. This place has had a massive injection of money after it burned down (or maybe it flooded...) and is probably the most upmarket place I'll see this side of Broome.
Food, fuel, coffee (Merlo.. didn't escape Queensland for long) and off toward the Three Ways.
Yep, another roadhouse. Food, fuel, you get the idea... off again for the next roadhouse.
But before that, I pull up to a random memorial for Charles Todd. The superintendent of Telegraphs in 1872. He had this crazy idea of connecting Adelaide to Darwin with an overland telegraph line, that could then connect to the rest of the world.
They achieved this 3000 km, 36,000 pole build in under two years, reducing communications latency from weeks to minutes.
Speaking of communication, with nothing else out here, its hard not to notice these towers every few dozen kilometres.
Basically the 1980s to 2000s equivalent to the telegraph line, these microwave towers create point to point connecticity to the far reaches of the NT and remote QLD. Without ever needing to run cable. The bandwidth is millions of times more than the old telegraph line.
Near as I can tell from ACMA searches, most of these are no longer operating. Supplanted by newer microwave, satellite or perhaps fibre. Given the complete lack of phone service, even in direct line of sight of these towers, its surprising they aren't repurposed.
Really shows how game changing the next leap of technology like Low Earth Orbit satellites (ala. Starlink) will be for these remote places.
Anyway, another podcast on and I keep following this straight as a pole highway.
Arriving at Daly Waters, its too hot for a camp, so I get a 30 dollar backpackers bed, eat some spag bol from the pub, have a shower in the communal bathroom, and then dream of my cozy cabin in Longreach as I lie in my single bed donga.
Tomorrow I leave the red centre for Katherine, as it slowly transforms into the tropics.