Day 77 & 78

Hey peoples, we been in the bush for a couple of days…. No internet or phone & plenty of dirt & dust.

So we left Broome, had an overnight stay at Fitzroy Crossing, then it was into the real outback as we headed to Halls Creek. It was all on sealed road and the landscape was quite pretty, there were lots of areas that had been “Burnt off” either in controlled burns, by lightning strike, or deliberately lit by some of the Aboriginal communities (same as controlled burning) but Ness & I both agreed that the land was “Managed” very well, sure there were patches that had been recently burnt off & other patches that were recovering from a burn off, but all in all it was a very nice drive. Why can’t we seem to “Manage” the land as well in the eastern & southern states?

So we made it to Halls Creek, the start of the rough stuff, as we had over 400km to travel with no fuel stops we decided to fill our Jerry cans which hold 20 litres each (we have 2 jerry cans) as a backup. So picture this….I’m driving the car, I pull up at the bowser so we can fill the car up. But as we also have to fill up the Jerry cans (They are painful to open as they have a locking seal on them) I say to Ness, I’ll get out and do the car and the jerry cans. So Ness goes to the back of the car & gets my wheelchair, I then get out & proceed to fill up the car, by now we have a couple of cars behind us waiting to fill up as this is the only servo in town. I fill the car & then tell Ness to drive forward, I open one jerry can and fill it, spilling diesel on my shoe! And then pull the hose over to the other jerry can (they are mounted either side of the van on the bar at the back) only to find that the hose is 6 inches too short! A couple of expletives later I say to Ness, we will have to turn it around. But as there are people behind us that is not going to happen!

So I roll into the service station & wait in the queue of locals buying soft drinks, smokes & fast food (the servo is also one of the few “Shops” in town) and pay for the fuel.

Then I go back out & we have to wait for the pump to free up before Ness drives the van in the opposite way to fill the 2^nd jerry can, I go inside & wait in the queue again and pay for my 20 litres of fuel.

So approximately 45 minutes after we arrived in Halls Creek we have filled up the car with fuel!

Out of Halls creek & I am getting excited, dirt road here we come! Off the tar and onto the gravel, now the first couple of kilometres was reasonably good, but then it got progressively worse & worse! To the point that the corrugations were shaking the crap out of car, van & US! I didn’t say anything to Ness but I was ready to turn around…. I love the Land Rover & Trakmaster too much to punish it to 400km of this! But wait it got worse, there were patches of Bulldust, dust so fine that when you hit it the dust almost explodes around you! Now we had been told by fellow travellers that the first 40km was bad but after that it gets better…. So we decided to continue. And we are glad we did…. Because we then drove through some more absolutely beautiful country. There were creek crossings, natural springs, rock escarpments, and plain boring cattle stations….but all of it had its attraction…. Man we are so lucky to live in this place!

All right so now it is approaching Dusk, the road had improved & my navigator advised me that there was a camping spot on the map just after the WA/NT border, so we decided that would be it for the night. Crossed the border & we drove…..and drove….. and drove ….. and drove! By now it was dark & we were on a cattle station in the middle of nowhere & had 500kg plus cows wandering across in front of us! This rest area was nowhere near where it showed on the map! I’m writing to complain!

Eventually we found it & the 3 of us were happy to get into the van & call it a day!

Ok so that brings us to today, now we were 200km away from the next fuel stop, but we knew that they closed at 12 midday. So no problems I asked Ness to set her alarm for 6am & then we would be able to get up, have brekky get ready & then cruise along the dirt tracks at 50-60 km/h. But once we got going we realised that we had crossed the border last night & were now on Central Australia and we had to put our clock forward 1.5 hrs!!! so we had just lost 1 & a half hours of travel time!

Time to put the foot down to make sure we made it to the fuel stop! But between bulldust, corrugations & cattle grids we pulled into the service station at 1130am….Phewwww! or we would be staying there till Monday morning when it reopened.

We decided after we fuelled up that we would stop there for lunch, Ness went into the van & came back almost white! During our rough road trip one of the windows had managed to work its way open & the inside of the van was now coated in fine red dust!.....NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Now for those of you who know Ness she is a clean freak, she is very houseproud & enjoys things being clean. So you can imagine her disappointment when she saw the inside of the van today!

But I have to say I was very proud of her, after her initial shock she said we would just have to clean it out when we stopped this afternoon! Well done honey, I’m very proud of you not “Losing it!”

I promise we will get the van detailed when we get home!

So we arrive in Top Springs, fill up with fuel & Ness goes to arrange our site for the night. Annie & I wait outside and are amused by the locals coming from all of the “DRY” communities to buy their grog, and they are quite freely walking around drinking or over sitting under a tree, some have driven hundreds of kilometres just to buy grog! (Sounds like something Brad A would do!)

We get our site & Ness spends the next few hours taking everything out of the van, cleaning it all & then putting it all back together again….. Awesome job!!!

Now all of you close your eyes & think of this. Build a pub & a bottle shop in the middle of Australia, chuck in a bloke named Marty & his missus named Pauline, add in half a dozen staff to run the bar, the kitchen & the accommodation, throw in some rooms for people to stay in if they get too pissed to drive (at a cost of course) & a small caravan park out the back for travellers. And then every Friday & Saturday night just wait for all the local station hands & jackeroos & blackfellas that can’t buy grog anywhere else to start rolling in & spend their money. Sound like a good idea?

Well you are too late because someone has already done it & we are here tonight. We went to the bar for a drink, had a Parma & some lamb chops for dinner & watched 20 or so local farmhands all hand over their hard earned dollars ($6 a beer!)

But what a great atmosphere, you could easily sit at the bar & just enjoy watching the people roll in & stagger out. So another one to add to your bucket list…. Top Springs Pub

Readers Comments

No idea….No internet for 2 days!

Annies Blog

Mum tried to keep me awake tonight for some reason…. But I was tired! It felt like it was 1 & a half hours later than it really was????? Did I miss something?

Dad wrote too much tonight so there is no blog space left for me.

Love you all very much

AnnieInAVan…XXXX

Comments

[Norm Cheale]

Great trip and great story - well done guys. We're looking forward to our next rig which will be more capable of handling such roads than our poor old Roma caravan. We sure pushed the limits of it!
Keep well and travel safe,
N&M

[Tereasa, Jack's Mum!]

Ness, I feel your pain about the red dust! When my mother in law gets back she spend a week or so cleaning the red dust out of there van. It wasn't much fun when the crockery cupboard of our van flew open on a trip and the crockery smashed all through the van! That was a christmas day trip to remember!
James, I'd love to sit at one of those outback pubs and listen to the yocales!
Enjoy your trip home
T