We recommend Internet Explorer set to 1024x768.

© 2002 Brian F. Schreurs
Even we have a disclaimer.

Katherine to Alice Springs

August 4, 2001

  1822 miles       refuel & depart Katherine
  2003 miles       out of gas; jerrican
  2009 miles       refuel in Daly Waters
  2102 miles       killed bird
  2140 miles       refuel in Three Ways
  2353 miles       refuel in Barrow Creek
  2473 miles       out of gas; siphon
  2509 miles       overnight in Alice Springs

Indeed, Jason wastes no time in stretching the legs of the recently refreshed XJ6. At this pace, we soon catch up to some of the Darwin Run wankers. They're going a little too slow for Jaguars -- especially the XK-series cars -- so we give them a little refresher with our humble XJ6 by blasting past at full bore. I rub it in a little by hanging out the back window and photographing them as we blast by. I plan to further rub it in by posting their photos to the web.

A pack of beautiful Jaguars owned by a bunch of total dills who call themselves the Jaguar Club of Victoria.

One fellow seems so startled by being photographed from the passing lane at 90 mph that he momentarily forgets he's also driving a car, but fortunately he remembers before anything bad happens.

That's the last we should see of them, though: their itineary has them stopping for the night in Tennant Creek. We're keeping a rather more aggressive schedule.

With the roads truly almost completely empty, we spend the day trying to find the real top speed of the XJ6. 100 mph comes up easily enough, but the going is slower from there. Let's face it, the XJ6 is beautiful but short on aerodynamics. Shane gets 110 mph; I manage to find 112 mph; and Jason touches 114 mph briefly, which proves to be the unbeatable record. While this isn't the fastest I've ever travelled in a car, it is definitely the fastest pace I've kept up for an entire day. Going back to a world of 65 mph speed limits will not be easy.

While we haven't had any problems at these speeds, midafternoon we are reminded that highway travel does have its hazards. Seems a young couple towing a camper swerved for some local wildlife, the camper got unstable, and flipped itself. It looked like the camper exploded, with camper parts and personal belonging strewn for yards in every direction. Thankfully, no one was actually in the camper at the time, and the couple was also unharmed. We stop to help, but others with more cargo capacity are also there, and better equipped to render aid. We wish them well and continue on our way.

We also continue our fine tradition of not swerving for anything; Shane catches a smallish bird with a windshield wiper. Thankfully, the bird is killed instantly, but we spend the next 200 miles staring at its corpse.

Lunch for us is normally road food, but at least the road food here is better than fast food in the States. I often get a large leg of fried chicken because it's so much better than the fried chicken available at home, but today I find a place that sells ribs. I buy one and am startled to find the thing is a foot long! I do my best to work through it but the bloody thing is a meal all by itself; it defeats me.

There's not much to look at out here, but one exception to that is Devil's Marbles. Here, rising out of the desert, is a large pile of freestanding stones. These are truly massive stones, weighing several tons apiece, just sitting there in a big pile. It's an amazing display that asks the beholder to ponder the role of mankind in a world capable of such splendor using nothing but the patience of millions of years. Or it might if the beholders weren't driving right on past at 108 mph.

Fuel economy might be better at slower speeds, but for the most part we agree that constantly running out of fuel in the middle of a giant desert is a small price to pay for unfettered driving in someone else's car. The part that doesn't agree is the part for whom it is not someone else's car. Shane constantly asks that we keep the speed reasonable, which we constantly decline to do. We note that fuel economy drops drastically over 100 mph, so I try to keep it right around there most of the time. Jason tends toward 110, along with occasional grumblings that his V12 would be so much faster.

30 miles north of Alice Springs, the needle on the fuel gauge is once again closing in on the E, and this time we don't have any reserves in our jerrican. We've slowed way down to 65 mph to conserve fuel but mathematically it's not a sure thing that we'll make it all the way to the city. Shane insists we pull over, which we do.

"We'll have to siphon some petrol from the other tank," Shane says, reminding us that the left tank is still full even though the fuel pump doesn't work.

"Did you bring a siphon? I don't remember seeing one," I reply.

"No mate, we'll just suck it out."

Jason and I look at each other.

"Do you really think that's necessary?" asks Jason. "We might make it."

"Not a chance, we'll be doing it anyway, might as well get it over with."

"Come on Shane, why not wait till we actually run out of fuel?" I ask.

"Better to do it here in this rest area than on the side of the road. Now, if you girlie-poofs will give me a hand here..."

You were probably hoping we didn't have a picture of this.

Jason and I retrieve a length of hose and the jerrican. Shane makes a few attempts to suck the gasoline into the can without actually taking a mouthful, but they all fail. He screws up his resolve and does it the hard way.

"Agh, phlak!! Petrol tastes like shit!" Shane yells. But the siphon job is somewhat successful, capturing about a liter out of the dead tank, which we pour into the working tank. Now we'll make it to Alice Springs for certain, but the price is listening to Shane complain about the taste in his mouth the whole way. He may be a hero, but he's a high-maintenance hero.

On the way into town Alice Springs has some roundabouts strategically placed to weed out tourists from left-hand-drive countries. Over the last several thousand miles I thought I'd adapted pretty well to the reversed driving position and lanes, but I suddenly find myself habitually timing my entry into the circle by watching the flow of traffic -- from the wrong direction! I look the other way just in time to avoid being cleaned up by a ute.

In Alice Springs, we find a nice place to stay right next to a backpacker's lodge. That means there's lots of people about, and there's also a nearby Internet cafe. We check in with the outside world and find that it's still there. Overall, we travelled 1,100 kilometers in 8.5 hours, giving us an average of 81 mph even including all stops along the way. Not too shabby.