The Stuart Highway

The Stuart Highway runs from the town of Port Augusta, on the coast of South Australia all the way up to Darwin, in the Northern Territory. It's appx. 540 km (340 miles) up to Coober Pedy, where these words are written, and a further 688 km (430 miles) up to Alice Springs and then an excruciating 1,500 km (935 miles) on to Darwin. And here's the thing: Besides Alice Springs, and a handfull of tiny settlements along the way, there's absolutely nothing to do or see. The landscape stretches out for thousands of kilometers on each side, and it is all mindnumbingly, horribly boring.

If you're very lucky (or, as the case may be, unlucky), you may catch a glimpse of some wildlife; emus in my case. Otherwise, it's just shrublands all the way, interspersed with dried up salt lakes.

All pics here.

Emus.


This low mountain was just a few minutes out of Port Augusta. I can see no reason why this isn't just as famous as Ayer's Rock, except for Australians' spite for stupid tourists. Such as me.


Still some signs of civilization, shortly after Port Augusta. It gets a lot worse.


As I rolled down the window to get this pic of the salt lake, about two million flies decided to fill the car. They're everywhere. I even went and bought me a stupid looking hat with a net in front yesterday.


This is how 90% of "the outback" looks like.