Legends and Mysteries of the Outback

The outback is full of legends and mysteries. It is a legend that if you see the Todd River flow three times in Alice Springs, you become a local and you never leave. Part of you always stays. This land gets in your blood. It does not let go. How it does this is a mystery.

Seasons create mysteries as they pass over the Central Desert. The year slips from hot to cold, and back to hot again. Waterholes with their bottomless depths are cold all year round, making them only swimmable in summer. Some say the Rainbow Serpent lives lurks along the bottom of particular waterholes. When people drown, their bodies are usually not recovered. Where do they go?

The landscape also holds its own secrets. On a dark night, tucked up in a swag on a campsite in the Central Desert, one can feel the breath of the earth and the gasp of the wind. The stars themselves have chronicled this place for longer than collective human memory.

Birthday Waterhole in Central Australia: shrouded in mystery

The mysteries surrounding fires in the riverbed during winter also exist in Alice. As one drives around town at night, coals like burning crystals illuminate the darkness all along the Todd River. Each person gathered around each campfire has a story, has a history. Who are they? What has their life been? The same could be asked of people clustered around backyard firepits and bonfires roaring out on acreage.  At any one moment on a winter's night right across the darkened town of Alice Springs, various fires burn all doing the same thing: bringing people together. The flames unlock conversation and community. How this happens is magical.

Some stories strike fear into the hearts of weary or adventurous travelers. Heading south from Alice Springs will take you into South Australia where the landscape cycles past repetitively and fatigue tempts the driver. These roads are long, exposed, and often lonely. Tour guides who use them regularly whisper of people who have headed south and disappeared off the highway with no explanation, never to be seen again. Did they veer off the road accidentally? Or were they taken?

However, these questions don't stop those who call the outback home. When adventure trumps fear, we experience true freedom. Remote roads track all across the Territory, some sealed, some unsealed, some well-traveled, others isolated. The locals who traverse them have heard all the stories of the outback. Despite the terror embedded in some of these stories, the thrill of the unknown and the challenge of remote life mean people still choose to live here. Like seeing the Todd River flow three times, once you see the outback, you cannot leave your memories behind. They stay with you forever.