The plan was to get up early and go for another hike before
we packed up and left. The noisy neighbours were up before everyone else, and
true to form were as noisy as ever. In an effort to keep their kids out of
their hair they gave them their bikes to ride, which they did, shouting and
yelling and annoying everyone. Fed up we packed up and left. We had thought
about going to Mt Augustus – the biggest rock in Australia, bigger than Uluru,
but we decided to get onto the Anne Beadell rather, so that we would be at the
half way point on Friday. We were a little concerned about getting fuel on a
weekend.
We headed out towards Laverton, as it was dirt roads it was
a good one and a half days drive. The trip was pretty eneventful, just driving
to get where we were going. We stopped at afew interesting places along the way mainly just to have a break. We spotted a great windmill close to the road, so we pulled in. Iain of course had his camera out ready to take photo's - it was then that I noticed the biggest bull I have ever seen under a tree. Needless to say I spent the whole time looking over my shoulder ready to run for the car.
Just before sundown we found a truck turnaround
with an area off to the side that was quite concealed behind trees and shrubs,
so set up camp for the night.
We both woke up quite excited, today was the day our big
adventure was beginning. We got up, made coffee and breakfast and started packing
up. I turned on the gas to boil water for dishes, and the stove wouldn’t light.
Iain came over to have a look and realised the gas bottle was empty. The silly
woman in Denham hadn’t filled it. This left us with a problem, where to get
gas.
Our first stop was Wiluna, a fairly big town, so we were
hopeful. We found out from the store owner where to get gas, only to find out
that as it was a public holiday the day before he probably wouldn’t be at work. As it was still
early we thought we would give him a bit more time. Iain had been mulling over
the fuel situation on the Anne Beadell, he had rad on one forum that they had
run out in the past, and travellers had to wait days for fuel. He decided the
best option would be to play it safe, so we went back to the store and he
bought 3 jerry cans. We went back to get gas, but the guy was still not there –
bugger – now we would have to go the long way to Laverton, we needed to go
through as many ‘towns’ as possible to increase our chances of getting gas.
We eventually got gas in Leonora, and running late pushed on
to Laverton. We had been hoping to be there by lunch, so we could register woth
the police and get the first part of the track done. It was around 3 when we
arrived. We stopped first at the information centre, had a coffee and filled up
with water. We had a chat to the lady in the info centre, she was lovely and
went out of her way to give us what we needed. Turns out she is from the Gold
Coast.
After leaving the info centre we got back in the car to go
to the police station,and I smelt something funny. Iain said it smelt
electrical and it was probably from outside, something made me look in the back
– it was smoky. We pulled over, Iain opened the back door and smoke was pouring
from the invertor. He disconnected the power, and with a sinking feeling we
realised that we had just lost power. We drove down to the police station, I
went in to register and Iain set about doing some rewiring so that the fridge
would work. Funny but all I could think was no coffee – the full implications
hadn’t dawned on me yet. Iain got everything rewired and we qickly went to the
shop to buy some coffee and an ice-cream to console ourselves.
It was now 4.30, so we knew we would need to get a move on.
We headed out and got onto the Anne Beadell. The police had warned us that it
was dangerous in some places, a twisty turny one lane road hedged by trees.
With this in mind, we kept a careful watch for any dust clouds on the horizon.
The first camping spot was at the entrance to the National Park, it was dark
already, so we just pulled in found a flat spot, put up the tent and went to
bed.
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