(2015/03/01) … this night was one of my sleepless ones. Why? I need a ticket for the Midburn in Israel. They had a problem with their ticket system during the first sales round where i was at the Kiwiburn and didn’t got a ticket and i had to wait for the second round. Exact this second round was a few days before announced where i got stuck in the deepest outback where nothing is between you 150km and the next roadhouse. If i would had internet, the sale happened at 3am in the morning. Lucky if you have good burner friends like “Holgi That’s Okay” who will be ready to get you a ticket with your details. Will i have a ticket or not? This question would be solved maybe today in the late afternoon or on the next days when i will have internet at a road house.
It’s really strange, you’re in the outback, no phone signal, no phone data and almost no radio, but an old roadhouse in the dessert, where almost all houses are abandoned, lot’s of trash (or sights) in the middle of an old square yard, has wifi with an acceptable speed. *pling* The notification sound of my arriving emails gave me hope and i stared to the incoming subjects for the new emails which contained one of Holgi and one of Midburn. Bummer! It seemed that Holgi had success with login and getting in the queue but somehow they have configured the Midburn ticket system to send you an unique link to shop to buy the ticket. As Holgi hasn’t access to my emails, he also have no chance to buy tickets with this link. NOOOooooo! Okay, i checked the content of the official email and they said that this link should be valid for 48 hours. Only a webpage with “Site under construction” was shown and it texted Holgi what happened this night. A few hours later he responded that they had again some problems with their ticket system and it looks that i have no chance for a ticket to Midburn now, because it was announced on Facebook that they are now sold out. I wasn’t really sad, somehow the playa always provides tickets to burners who need to be there…
Back on my thread about the motorbike ride… We had luck and were spared by rain in the night, which gave this morning a beautiful sunrise. This would be one of the most awesome places to stay for a night if there would be no flies. Todays distance of about 239km wasn’t that much, but the fact that the heat in the afternoon increase dramatically get everybody up early and to leave as soon as possible the campground to drive most distance while it’s “cooler”. What means “cooler” ? That’s about 30 degrees celsius 🙂 William Creek welcomed us with an strange square yard near the road and a roadhouse with internet (see post above) and a petrol station for fuel up. Todays ride on gravel was going definitively better then yesterday and makes more fun and so i just did a short stop there where others made there a short and longer break.
While leaving William Creek a road sign said “next service in 166 km”. This really makes you thinking about distances in Australia. This wasn’t the longest distance, but all roadsigns about next destinations have three digits here. You can really enjoy here riding without breaking every few km for a village. 166km of never-ending gravel road, be lucky if you be the first and don’t have to eat the dust of your buddy in front of you (or keep enough distance between you and him). After a while you could spot the first small and white covered mining hills of the region Coober Pedy where we would stop for two nights and have rooms in one of the dug-outs. After our dinner we made a short detour to have a beer in the Underground Bar in the biggest and most expensive dug-out Hotel. Everybody was really happy not setup or pack a tent and to have a a rest with pleasant constant 24 degrees celsius. Tomorrow we all get a bus tour around the city and hear a bit about it’s history…