2008 Outback WA & NT - Day 5 Thursday July 31st

Woke up early this morning at about 5:45, so got up to catch the sunrise on video. We got the camp packed up and decided to have Up and Go for breakfast so that we could make an early start, knowing what the road conditions were going to be like. We pulled out of camp at about 7:20, knowing that ahead of us we had about 140 kms of corrugations from hell.



They began as soon as we left the camp area. This would have to be the worst road that I have ever driven on. The poor truck is being shaken to hell and back, no matter what speed I choose to do. Usually with corrugations you can find a nice speed that will allow you to just kind of float over the top of them, but these ones were very different, as there was no speed either fast or slow that made them any better to drive on.



After suffering for a couple of hours with both the vehicle and the occupants being massaged or tortured, depending on which way you wanted to look at it, we stopped at Mt Everard for morning tea. While we were stopped we heard what sounded like another vehicle in the distance, and within about 5 minutes a large V8 Ford camper pulled in near us.



This vehicle contained a Swiss couple and an exchange student they were hosting from Columbia. They had only been camped about 5 kms behind us last night. The had brought their vehicle into Australia with them for a 3 month trip through Western Australia and the Northern Territory, a large Ford V8 diesel left hand drive camper. The kids found it quite amusing that their steering wheel was on the wrong side of the car.

We chatted for about 20 minutes about where we were all going, so decided to camp together tonight at a point further down the track. We didn’t travel together, although we did spend the rest of the day passing each other as one would be stopped for photos or lunch and the other would go past.



I was hoping to get to our planned camp site as there didn’t seem to be too many suitable places to camp off the side of the road where we were driving.

Finally at about 4:45 pm we made camp at Len Beadell’s tree, which was about 10 kms before the planned stop. Within about 15 minutes the Swiss couple and passenger had also arrived. We all set up camp and got dinner organized. For us another curry that we had cooked the day before.

Tonight has been to coldest of the trip so far, still not really cold, more just a bit chilly. Tracy is still suffering from the flu, which has now gone to her chest. Jackson came over to the camp not long after it had turned dark, with a piece of Mulga sticking out of his leg. It had happed as he and Shai were off looking for suitable marshmallow toasting sticks. Here was my first chance to use the new fancy first aid kit that I had received for Christmas last year, as well as a perfect video opportunity.

We built our second campfire of the trip and invited our Swiss guests to come and join us around it. We spent a couple of hours chatting, hearing all about their travels, both here in Australia and in other places around the world such as their camping through Africa, and they asked us about our trips. We eventually put the fire out and headed off to bed at about 9:00 pm. It was a very pleasant end to a hard day, both for the vehicle and the occupants.

The kids had gone off to bed earlier at around 8:00 pm. They seem to tire easily out here. It was a beautiful night with lots of stars A light breeze and Tracy coughing were the sounds that I went to sleep with tonight.

It will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings. The road we are hoping will be somewhat better than today. Due to Tracy not being well we have decided not to do the abandoned section of the Gunbarrel on this trip. I guess that give me an excuse to do another trip out on this road at sometime in the future. We do not have a planned camp site for tomorrow night, so will drive as far as we can depending on the conditions and find somewhere suitable off the side of the road. It looks as though we will be a day late in meeting Tracy’s parents at Curtin Springs.

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Cheers Richard VKS737 - Mobile 1912 Selcall 1912 Member: My Profile  My Blog  Send Message