Every night we plan our early morning departure, and every
morning turns into a not so early pack-up. Nevertheless we were on the road by
about 9 and headed into Katherine for a few last minute things. One thing we
had been looking for was a doormat, to stand on when having a bush shower. We had seen great ones made from tyres and wire at all the places we had been staying. We eventually managed to track one down. We
got last minute bread and milk and set of for Nhulunbuy.
Iain had downloaded a couple of travel books before we left,
and according to them it was a worthwhile trip that not many people do, as it
is a 1600km roundtrip detour. There has also been a lot of talk about a gas
pipeline being built, so we thought it was worth having a look in case Iain was
offered work there. It is quite a mission to get there even before you start.
The land is Aboriginal territory, so you have to have various permits to travel
on the road as well as sightsee. We applied for our road permit a few times but
had no response, it was only when we actually went into the Land Council that
we actually got it.
The road was your stock standard gravel road, with all the humps
and bumps that go along with it. It was a pretty uneventful trip, with nothing
much to see. We did stop at a lookout for lunch and were quite surprised by the
view – and the amount of rubbish strewn around.
We were unsure about fuel and what was available as the map
and book was giving different information. We stopped at an Aboriginal store
for an ice-cream and for Iain to suss out the state of the fuel. He was not
happy with the look of it – the last thing you want is dirty fuel. We pushed on
as we were pretty sure that the bigger town would be a better option. Suddenly
as we rounded a bend there was this amazing roadhouse, with brand new
buildings, pumps and even green grass and flowers. We absolutely had to stop
here – it is not often you see something so good in the middle of nowhere. We
filled up and pushed on.
The ladies – yes of course it was women – gave us info on
the roads and luckily we had stopped there because there was a funeral in Bullman – our
backup – and everything was closed. We got about 10km out of Bullman and
suddenly the remote for the sensors in
the tyres went off, it gives us warnings when things change, so I casually
picked it up, after about 2 seconds lots of swear words happened, we had our
first puncture.
We sprung into action, Iain got the repair kit with the
plugs in and tried to plug the hole before the tyre completely deflated, that
didn’t work so defeated, he got the jack out to change it. I think I may have
mentioned a few times it is hot out here, especially the gravel road, the heat
blasts off it. So while Iain undid nuts and changed the tyre I stood with my
sarong spread ouit trying to shade us both. I think by now I could write a book
called a million uses for a sarong.
Without a spare tyre we knew we would need to find somewhere
to camp for the night, while it was still light so that Iain could try and fix
the puncture. The permit states that you can only camp in designated spots.
Unfortunately all the camping spots were right on the road – one rule we have
is to always be out of sight of the road, out of sight out of mind. We thought
bugger it, found a gravel pit and set up for the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment