![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
100 bucks worth of writing
This was the article that won me hundred Australian dollars. In my opinion not nearly as good as some of the short stories I have written, but apparently, as I had hoped, suitable for the magazine that published it last month. So thousands of travellers all over Australia have been reading it lately, I might as well give LJ-land a chance to read it as well. It isn't that bad I guess.
Outback
It is one of the words that everybody thinks off if they think of Australia, but to really know what you are talking about, there is only one way: go there and find out.
So I decided against the major road from Adelaide to Coober Pedy, but took the road through the Flinders instead. However nice and impressive this area is, the trip started for me when I left the sealed road and began on a 500km+ drive over gravel and sand. Hoping my old car would manage the distance I eagerly looked at the map and saw William Creek, reputedly the smallest place in Australia.
But before I was there, there was still quite a way to drive. Having slept in my car the first night, the second day started bad. A flat tire, the first time in my life that I had to change it myself. I surprised myself by applying all the utensils properly and just half a hour later I drove again.
In the end it took me two days to get to William Creek. I could write pages about everything I saw. Deserted ghosttowns, groups of emu's and kangaroos, aboriginal paintings, salt lakes, some cattle stations and plenty of emptiness. I was scared by the amount of tires next to the road and hoped that I would manage with only one spare myself. I was overtaken by four wheel drives all the time and dreaded the flies as soon as I opened the door of the car. And this was autumn, in summer apparently it is much worse.
But most of all I was alone in the outback. As far as I could see it was empty. A few trees, a few bushes and sand. Plenty of sand, even sand dunes, as you see them at the Paris-Dakar race. Apparently this isn't a desert officially, but for me it seemed to resemble one as much as I could imagine. Words can't describe the experience of being in the middle of nowhere. It's something you've got to find out yourself if you're in Australia.
William Creek is a story on its own, I stayed the night in the pub-hotel-camping-petrolstation and drove to Coober Pedy the next day. Less than 200 kilometer on a sand road. It felt easy after the last days.
Outback
It is one of the words that everybody thinks off if they think of Australia, but to really know what you are talking about, there is only one way: go there and find out.
So I decided against the major road from Adelaide to Coober Pedy, but took the road through the Flinders instead. However nice and impressive this area is, the trip started for me when I left the sealed road and began on a 500km+ drive over gravel and sand. Hoping my old car would manage the distance I eagerly looked at the map and saw William Creek, reputedly the smallest place in Australia.
But before I was there, there was still quite a way to drive. Having slept in my car the first night, the second day started bad. A flat tire, the first time in my life that I had to change it myself. I surprised myself by applying all the utensils properly and just half a hour later I drove again.
In the end it took me two days to get to William Creek. I could write pages about everything I saw. Deserted ghosttowns, groups of emu's and kangaroos, aboriginal paintings, salt lakes, some cattle stations and plenty of emptiness. I was scared by the amount of tires next to the road and hoped that I would manage with only one spare myself. I was overtaken by four wheel drives all the time and dreaded the flies as soon as I opened the door of the car. And this was autumn, in summer apparently it is much worse.
But most of all I was alone in the outback. As far as I could see it was empty. A few trees, a few bushes and sand. Plenty of sand, even sand dunes, as you see them at the Paris-Dakar race. Apparently this isn't a desert officially, but for me it seemed to resemble one as much as I could imagine. Words can't describe the experience of being in the middle of nowhere. It's something you've got to find out yourself if you're in Australia.
William Creek is a story on its own, I stayed the night in the pub-hotel-camping-petrolstation and drove to Coober Pedy the next day. Less than 200 kilometer on a sand road. It felt easy after the last days.
no subject
So you liked it here?
~lgf
Re:
Yes, I enjoyed it a lot, if you're really interested, I wrote quite a bit, most of it needs editing, some of it is still only on paper. It'll take me ages before I'm done with them, but I did write several newsletters while I was there for family, friends, relatives, colleagues, travellers, basically anybody interested in my adventures in Oz and the other countries I visited. All of them are in LJ as well, I used it as an archive. They're inbetween all the other posts, I've called them 'gerbie on tour'.
If you're lazy and don't want to see the rest, there is also www.livejournal.com/users/gerbieontour
which I created just for these newsletters.
Do feel free to shoot at them, I like to hear some critisism. The one I consider best (of the Oz bit) is the pecking order on the road in Oz, I guess it must be number 36 or 37.
Re:
~lgf
no subject
Re:
Re:
~lgf
Re:
I've lived in Amsterdam twice, but I needed foreign visitors to do the touristic bits with them. Oh well, c'est la vie.
Re:
I'm going to add you to my friends list, if that's okay.
~lgf
Re:
It's your friends list, you don't have to ask, but I'm honored :-)