Day 8: Tjukayirla - Warakurna

Today went so smoothly we were happy to carry on driving when we came upon Warburton 255km from Tjukayirla. We arrived around midday after leaving at 7AM. Our next stop was Warakurna, 231km, which took another four hours.

I say everything went smoothly because there was no major dramas for a change. We didn't break down, we still haven't found the mouse and assume it's mouse overboard by now, and we still relativity sane.

By the end of the day I was so fed up with seeing, feeling, smelling the sun. So fed up with getting jiggled about over terrible stretches of road where we could only do 35km/h (our max is around 65km/h), where the road was densely littered with jagged rocks or it was so corrugated that every bone in poor Henry's and our bodies clattered and shuddered like the end spin of a washing machine. So fed up with seeing, feeling, smelling, tasting every shade and texture of red dirt, we are all covered in it, including Henry's interior and as a result all our belongings. Incidentally, it is iron oxide coating the particles of soil that makes it red. Whenever we stopped to change drivers or check the van over if we looked at the road in front we both had a strange visual effect where the road seemed to be drawing away from us, which made me feel a little queasy. I guess looking at a stretch of road rushing towards you for so many hours can play tricks on your brain.

That all said I am happy we have gained a day by doing the nine hour dash and tomorrow we have Uluru (Ayers Rock) and real road to look forward too. It really wasn't all bad.

Actually there was one small drama, when I went to the ablutions for my shower there were two HUGE flying bugs bombing me and they didn't even die after I emptied 3/4 of a can of Raid bug killer on them, so I had to shower in the men's. Oly and I were the only people in the camp site so it was OK.

Tip: Always check dates on anything you buy at remote road houses, twice now oly has bought orange juice and they have been our of date by as much as three months!

Em

Miles: 486
Time: 9 hours
Temp: 41c
Music:
Bill Withers - Greatest Hits
Audio book - The Cat Who Went up the Creek, Lilian Jackson Braun

Day 7: Laverton - Tjukayirla

Last night, as I uploaded the last blog entry, I looked over at Oly and there was a mouse sitting on the top of the seat headrest behind him. Ol turned the whole drivers cab upside down trying to find it while I sat on the bed, feet off the floor, directing him. In the end we were so tired we went to bed, but of course slept really badly. So now we don't really know if we have a mouse hitching a lift or not. This afternoon we took most of the contents of the van and cupboards out but still have not seen it. Oly has set up a tin to hopefully catch it in without harm.

Today's journey to Tjukayirla was long and hot, it took us 8 hours to do 260km. Of those 8 hours around 1 1/2 was spent by the side of the road changing a tyre. When we jacked up the van we didn't realise the earth was soft underneath and the van slipped, twisting the jack and rendering it useless. It took us 30 minutes to get the jack out from under the van, on Kombi's the jack slides into a metal slot and as it twisted it jammed itself in. We had to dig a hole underneath with the jemmy to release it. I was getting ready to dig an even bigger big hole underneath the wheel to change it, we weren't sure if that would work or not, as our only other option's would have been to drive Henry on the flat for 150km or sit and hope that someone drives past before we run out of food and water! We had no idea if there was much traffic on these roads, we had been driving for 3 hours and had not seen a soul.

As luck would have it, in the distance like a shimmering mirage, we saw an object coming slowly towards us, a bit like Omar Sharif's entrance in Lawrence of Arabia. A very helpful man in a shiny new scraper appeared and expertly, yet delicately, lifted Henry up by his rear tow bar using the scraper. He knew exactly what he was doing which makes me wonder how many times he has had to dig tourists out of a hole.

We passed by our first bushfire, there were three different fires scattered around us. The sky was very hazy. It was started a few days ago by lightening. When we stopped at the scraper man's work camp they assured we would be OK to drive through as the fires had not reached the roads yet. From where we were driving it looked pretty darn close!

This place, Tjukayirla, is in the middle of nowhere, population 2. It is the most isolated roadhouse in Australia. All you have is a place to sleep the night and refuel. The people who run it are very friendly and took the business over only four months ago. Fuel here is $1.90 a litre, where in Perth it is around $1.10.

We arrived at 14:30 and have spent a nice afternoon doing those small tweaks to our living arrangement that makes all the difference (after the unloading of the van, searching for the mouse, and reloading). We watched a beautiful sunset after we climbed up a small hill and now I think its time for bed.

Em

Miles: 260
Time: 8 hours
Temp: 41c
Music:
AC/DC - Back in Black
Kula Shaker - Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts
Fleetwood Mac - Tango in the Night
Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams
Jamiroquai - Emergency on Planet Earth