Aussie Adventure Day 7

Blogger: Pat Lynch

Day 7 – The Adventure Continues – 8th July

Got up at first light at 7AM. I was awake earlier and I could see the stars going out one by one until the sunrise. I got dressed in shorts, jumper and coat as it is 1 degrees and freezing. Fire is re-started from the ashes last night and water is boiled for tea, coffee and washing the dishes. Juice, cereal, toast, tea and coffee is the menu this morning. By 8AM, temperatures are rising to near 20 degrees. Dishes are washed and cars loaded and we are off by 8.30AM. 500km ahead of us today, further north to get closer to where we are going. Plenty of wild animals and birds to be seen. Every mile you see dead kangaroos on the road, hit by trucks and cars by night. As we go further North, you see dead cows at the side of the road ready to burst from the heat of the sun(the heat bloats their stomach over a few days). They were hit by trucks also. All towns are tiny with one shop, pub etc and nothing for another perhaps 200km. We pull in off the side of the road to a water pond to have a cup of coffee with some fruit cake.

240 litres of diesel was just put on board for our jeep(Discover Land Rover) at Kumarina. 120 litres on the rood rack, 20 litres on each back door and 95 litres in the land rover. We are within 50km of our last tarred road and then it is bush from there. Just stopped for lunch. Had cold chicken which we brought from Perth. I find the flies very annoying but they go down and disappear at sunset. We have turned off the main tarred road and are now on our first non tarred road. It is incredibly straight with no bends. We can do 80km per hour without any difficulty.

We are heading to Jigalong, a native community which we have a permit to visit tomorrow. We cannot get access until 9AM in the morning. We are possibly the first car on this road today and it is now 3pm in the afternoon. We leave an incredible cloud of copper dust as we drive along with several miles between each vehicle to allow the dust to settle. The road appears to have been worked on last year as it is in great condition. It is like compacted soil and gravel. I could be the first Irish man to be on this road which seems to go on forever. After 30km, we see 3 cars who look like they not seen people for a while. Just met our first person. She lives in the local station which is a farm. The farm is as big as Co. Cork. She stopped us to tell us the road is dangerous ahead and it is not used by many people. She informed us that people get stranded up here in this part. We drive on and the road forks. To the left was the way the lady we met went to her farm. We go right and the road deteriorates but it is still good. You see the odd ant hill on the road, which is a cone shaped object of ants.

We just came across station 40, a old Aborigine farm which got purchased by another local farm where it go combined together. Back on the road. It is now 4.15 and we need to find camp by 30 minutes. Just passed a local old abandoned cattle station. Spotted a great camp site. We get the fire gear unloaded as the sun sets. By 5.30 it is dark, the stars come out one by one and what a site! Dinner is soup, pork chops, veg and potatoes, followed by some chocolate for desert and tea/coffee. We sat around a great camp site and chatted until 8.30 or so. It is cold now but not freezing. Time for sleep. The stars are spectacular. Great sleep, I woke at some stage for a pee and enjoyed the view of the stars. What quietness – no one for miles.