Friday 2 July 2021 – WA (Wait Awhile)
Today was just a bit frustrating. I have always rolled my eyes a bit at eastern staters who sneeringly refer to us Westralians as the Wait Awhile state but today I figured they had a point.
For a start, as we had a bit of a sleep in, Hendrik and Miranda became worried we were ill as they hadn’t received their morning coffees at the usual time. Hendrik came over to get them just as Larry was leaving the van to deliver them so gave L a bit of shock as he rounded the corner of the van.
We packed up and left Karijini about 8.30am with a brief stop at the rubbish disposal point and then it was back to Great Northern Highway with CH40 buzzing with truckies, road crews and pilot vehicles. After about 10 minutes, said pilot vehicle told us to pull over as three overwidth trucks were heading south in the opposite direction. Unfortunately we encountered them just as they were heading through the pass uphill from Auski to the Albert Tognolini Rest Area. So it was quite a long wait as they slowly chugged up the hill. Still they were very wide with trucks carrying big dump trucks with whole tyres hanging off the side of the trucks so it was just as well we were safely out of the way and pulled over on flat ground.
The bad part of having been pulled over into a group of cars meant that the same group of cars (and vans etc) all arrived at Auski Road House at the same time. Hence it was yet another exercise in patience as we joined a long queue for the bowsers. Unfortunately some van towers aren’t great towing their vans in straight lines either so sometimes people couldn’t pull forward into available bowsers. Auski also operates a system where you have to go in and hand over your driver’s licence before filling up and most people didn’t work this out until it was their turn and then stood there squeezing the trigger for a few minutes before they actually read the sign.
About this time is when Larry decided he really doesn’t like stupid people.
We finally got served and using our system of one running in and dealing with inside the shop stuff while the other dealt with fuelling up and then moving the van when appropriate thumbs ups are provided we reckon we managed the refuel in approximately a quarter time of anyone else. It reminds us of when we queue overseas for something like the Tower of London where it literally takes us 30 seconds to purchase our tickets after we have stood in a queue of approximately 100 people for something like 3 hours.
Anyway, we were happy to leave Auski and Great Northern Highway behind us and head west along the old Wittenoom road. This was predominantly gravel with old bitumen bits, particularly around the town formerly known as Wittenoom. We drove up one of the old streets (with the windows up and the air conditioning on recirc) and saw some of the old houses. Apparently there is still one old lady living there who refused to leave so it must be a lonely, depressing existence with the town and community you loved slowly eroding around you.
We drove onwards in a north-westerly direction through the Pilbara countryside. This part of the journey felt the most desolate and isolated road we have been on the whole trip as there were very few other vehicles on the road. The only thing of interest along the way was ‘Crossing Camp’ which was the in the process of constructing a new railway line through the area. About lunchtime Hendrik found a likely piece of flat shale next to a stand of trees and a muddy creek for us to pull over and eat our sandwiches. There were lots of cow and horse prints in the dried mud but no animals to be seen other than some budgies around the creek. Jenny took some time wandering around collecting all the bits of old wood and roots and filled up the back firewood bag while no one else was looking.
Back on the road and we were all happy to hit the bitumen on the Rio Tinto railway access road for a few kilometres and even happier that we didn’t have to wait for a train at the point where we had to cross the line. Turned left onto the Pannawonica road and another twenty k’s or so to the access road into the Millstream-Chichester National Park.
We had prebooked and reserved our DPAW sites back in January so were dismayed to see a tent sent up in our bay when we arrived. So a bit more “wait awhile” as first we tried to find the camp hosts (who had gone off for an afternoon walk) and then a ranger to sort it out. Just as Larry had disappeared off to the ranger’s office on foot a white Pajero rolled back into camp and reversed into our site studiously ignoring Jenny waiting nearby. I walked over to the car and the woman eventually deigned to notice me and wind down her window and then very politely (considering how pissed off I was) let them know they were in our site and asked what site they had booked. She pulled out her booking form which quite clearly showed they were on site 2 , not 14, and she played dumb (or maybe they just were really dumb) and pretended they hadn’t realised they were designated sites (even though they had obviously booked on line just like we had and therefore would have selected a site at that point). Anyway, they were very quick to jump out and Hendrik took a great photo of the bloke carrying the still erected tent away over his head while Jen drove the van around the loop one more time and found Larry to give him the thumbs up that it was all sorted.
So it was a later finish to the day than it should have been and after set up it was pretty much day over. The ranger, who looked a lot like Prince Harry, dropped around to check everything was sorted and almost looked a little disappointed that he didn’t get to forcibly remove the tent from the space. Miranda volunteered to sit in our space so he could forcibly remove her if that helped!!
As usual, when someone has had a crappy day and doesn’t feel like cooking it happens to be the other van’s turn to cook and so it was that it was H&M’s turn to cook up a delicious dinner of chicken, rice and veg whilst L&J consoled themselves with a number of gin and tonics. Our good humour was restored with food, drink and good company and the enjoyment of our two lovely sites (which are probably the pick of the campground – Sites 14 and 15 for future reference).
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