I booked myself on the Desert Venturer, a bus that travels on sealed and unsealed roads, in the outback. On Saturday 25 November, I got up at 5.30am and an hour later, jumped on the mighty red bus and started this epic journey through the desert.
The Desert Venturer. Not any bus, as it can travel comfortably on dirt roads.
First impressions: "Wow this bus is full. There, one seat next to this guy, I'm gonna sit there". And I met Cedric, a French backpacker from Cergy. It was a good start I thought. Really cool guy and good conversation in the first few hours.
And so the bus left Cairns. We drove through the Atherton Tablelands, admiring the last bits of lush rainforest before entering eucalypt forests and finally bidding farewell to green landscapes.
Our first stop was Millstream Falls, which would be the last time we'd see water in large quantities!
After about 30 minutes of sightseeing around these impressive waterfalls, we hopped back on the bus and the journey went on... Next stop: Oasis Roadhouse, where we could have a look a Australia's smallest bar and enjoy a nice picnic lunch.
An almost invisible phasm
Australia's smallest bar! "For a hard earned thirst".
We would then leave the sealed road and start a bumpy and shaky ride on the outback's dirt roads.
Endless straight roads... It was very fascinating. Driving for hours with only a few bends. And on both sides of the road, nothing but bushes and rocks...
Every now and then we'd come across a road train which would create a thick cloud of dust, much to the delight of Greg, our fantastic driver/tour guide. Road trains can be huge, up to 50 or 60 metres long. The number of trailers allowed on one road train depends on state regulation, from 2 to 4.
And here is Greg. Incredibly knowledgeable, with a great sense of humour, Greg definitely made this trip enjoyable and interesting!
Unfortunately, in the blistering heat, even the mightiest buses have their weaknesses. And our dear Desert Venturer had us stop in the middle of nowhere to cool down a bit...
As we were getting closer to the desert, we could see more and more termite mounds, incredible structures which can reach the amazing height of 5 metres.
Another road train and the inevitable cloud of dust.
Before reaching our final destination of the day, we stopped at the Porcupine Gorges to admire Queensland's small "Grand Canyon".
We spent our first night in Hughenden, in the Western Hotel, where we enjoyed a good dinner and a few games of "killer pool". The principle is rather simple: all participants hit the white ball in turns and have to put any of the other balls in the hole. If they put a ball in the hole, they stay in the game. If they miss it, they lose a point. When you've lost 3 points, you're out. And it goes on like that until there's only one person left. I noticed that the word "pool" sounded like the French word "poule" so, in agreement with a few other friends, including Cedric, Nicole and Anika, I decided to rename the game "killer chicken" and introduce a new rule: we would put a chicken on the pool table (la table a poule) and the first one who hits it wins the game. Unfortunately, nobody else seemed to like the concept...
And as the evening went on, the full moon rose silently in a cloudless, starlit sky.
The adventurous backpackers went to bed. The next day, we'd have to get up at 5.30am...
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