Stuart Highway
Six hours, six kang'roos
Last thoughts of terror and fright
For man's speed pleasure.
On leaving Alice Springs, I had not planned on going on the Stuart Highway, also known as Interstate 87. That highway is notorious for not being bicycle-friendly. I had planned on riding a dirt road out of Alice Springs known as the Ghan Heritage Road. But details made me forego that, and the only other option was to take the Stuart Highway.
Still, I knew that bicycle tourers who bike from Adelaide to Darwin (south to north the full length of Australia) use the Stuart Highway. Maybe that’s because that is the only direct way possible. So I was going to use it as well.
It was not an enjoyable six days.
Perhaps it was because I felt a cold coming on as soon as I left Alice Springs. and it stayed with me all six days. Because Stuart Highway is a well-used highway, roadhouses have cropped up along the way to gouge, I mean cater to, the nomadic crowd. To try to knock out the cold, I stayed in a room every night except for one where no roadhouse was available. (This was my first ever attempt at “credit-card touring,” that is, you bike from hotel to hotel, instead of camp, and charge it on the card.)
To all my friends who had worried about me “dying in the desert,” the more likely place I would die would be the Stuart Highway. (Anyone want to advocate for “safer streets”?)
Let’s just say that I was so happy to finally leave the highway and get on a dirt road heading to Oodnadatta.
The following video is kind of banal– nothing special. It could have been filmed on any highway anywhere. But it was six days out of my ride, so it’s there. Not even sure why I made it. Perhaps because I found a cute song. 🙂