One loop completed

 

Tuesday 29 June 2021 – One loop completed

All packed up early this morning and ready to tackle some more new roads.  This time it was the road that heads south-west out of Marble Bar. Thanks to Gina’s newish iron ore mine the road is now bitumen for the first 30km or so out of town so we whizzed along that and enjoyed the morning sun reflecting of the red and green hills (red from rock, green from vegetation).

We eventually hit dirt road again but it was very good dirt road which was relatively smooth with minimal corrugations so we made good time until we hit the bitumen again at the next mine and then it was only another 40km or so until it was back on Great Northern Highway.  The last time we were on this stretch of road was on the 24^th May after we had left Newman at lunchtime so I guess you could say we have just completed one very large loop.

We pulled into Auski (can never remember its new PC name) for fuel and a nature break.  The place was absolutely heaving with trucks and caravans and Great Northern Highway was wall to wall road trains so we were quick to move on.  Thankfully the Albert Tognolini rest stop was only another 20km or so up the road so we drove in there and nabbed a picnic table where we ate some of the still warm bread we had bought freshly baked at the Marble Bar general store/bakery this morning complete with various condiments.  There was another MDC XT15 parked up near us but the people didn’t seem interested in coming over and chatting vans – perhaps they were looking down their noses at our very grubby van compared to their lovely clean, probably hardly ever been used van.

We walked out to the lookout which has a good view of the road coming up through a cutting in the hills and is quite scenic and tried to get some artistic shots with pretty wildflowers and spectacular gorges and cuttings in the background.

Drove on and a little further south turned right off the main drag (and finally away from all the trucks and incessant chatter on CH40) and headed into Karijiini NP.  We found our pre booked campsites in Dales Gorge and set up the van.  As we have a 3 night stay we did the Full Monty set up including putting up more privacy screens than usual to assist in sheltering the side and rear of the van from the sun as, although the temperature is only in the mid 20’s, our van does heat up in the sun which can make for uncomfortable sleeping.

H&M were keen to go to the Information Centre to get a ‘plan of attack’ for the next few days so Jenny went with them while Larry did a bit more setting up around the van.  Unfortunately we timed it badly and pretty much got to the Information Centre just as they were closing so only time to grab a couple of brochures before they shut up shop and we had to drive back to base where we found that Larry had “just sat down” with beer in hand.

We sat and had a look at maps etc and then J&L cooked up dinner of honey soy chicken sticks with stir fry vegetables and noodles and then, as that had all got wolfed down, Jenny made the two fruit cake that was meant to be done in a campfire but worked just as well in the marine cooker (honestly, the thing hasn’t let us down yet and may finally convince Jenny that we can travel without the Webber!) and we ate half of that hot as pudding with custard and/or cream.

It was quite chilly by bed time and we probably should have got the sleeping bag out as an extra layer so during the night it was blanket and then tracksuits.