2008 Outback WA & NT - Day 6 Friday August 01st

We got away by 7:55 am this morning and encountered a somewhat more sedate road for the final 12 kms of the Gunbarrel before turning right onto the Heather Highway. We once again found ourselves being shaken to hell and back on more corrugations. We had some slow going for the next 15 kms or so, before making a left turn onto the Heather Highway proper. Now this was a road, beautiful, smooth, nicely graded gravel road with speeds up around 90 kms / hour, and the first time I had engaged 5th gear in 3 days.



It was here that we had some luck. We had stopped for morning tea and as usual some things had to be removed from the back of the car to get at the picnic box. After our stop I had put everything back into the car (or so I thought). It was only discovered about 100 kms later when we stopped for a break that I had left the toiletry bag on the drawbar of the camper. There it had sat for the last 100 kms or so, brown with dust instead of the original blue colour, but otherwise none the worse for wear. Talk about being lucky, either that or just my great driving.



We stopped a few times for video and photos along both of these tracks. We turned left onto the Great Central Road and headed for Warburton. We arrived there at about 11:30 am, where we had to seek permission to enter the community so that Tracy could be seen by the clinic there to try to get something sorted out for her now almost unbearable sore throat. We received permission to enter, but unfortunately the clinic was closed between 12:00 pm and 2:00 pm, and as it was now 11:50 am we were advised to return at about 1:50 pm so that we didn’t have to wait.



With 2 hours to spare we took the opportunity to visit the Tjurkla Art Gallery. Very impressive artwork from the local community’s around the area. We also took the opportunity to phone home and also tried to call Dennis (Tracy’s dad) to inform him that we were running a day later than planned. Couldn’t reach him, so will try over Radtel sometime this evening.

Its just gone 1:25 pm so only about 30 minutes or so to go till Tracy can get in to see the doctor. Due to the delay here, we will probably look for somewhere to bush camp off the side of the road tonight, as I don’t think we will make our planned destination of Warakurna.



We finally left Warburton at around 3:30 pm and drove for about 50 kms till we found a suitable bush camp out of town. We made camp while the kids went off to collect some firewood. Had a nice campfire going soon after and had sausages, eggs and potatoes on the hotplate for dinner.

Tracy shot plenty of video throughout this process, and after the washing up we sat around the fire chatting and toasting marshmallows for a bit, before heading off to bed pretty early once again.

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