Back in (another kind of) isolation

 

Thursday 21 July 2022 – Back in (another kind of) isolation

I think I fell asleep just after 9pm so consequently it was just before 6am when I woke and felt it was extremely unlikely I would sleep any more.  Read my tablet for a while but L woke up shortly afterwards and when we opened the blinds we realized the sun was just rising and reflecting pinks and oranges off the dappled clouds above so I sent Larry outside to get some fantastic photos of the golden sky above the caravans.

                                

                                

We had leisurely coffee and cereal and a pack up but we were already to hit the road by 8.30am given our early wake up time.  It was only a short drive to Tjukayirla Roadhouse where we made use of the very good toilet facilities and topped up with fuel once again.  We figure we will just keep topping up every time we find available fuel just in case we get to a community where it is closed for some reason (apparently this can happen if there is a funeral on or something).  Just across the road the mapbook suggested there was a breakaway named ‘The Zoo’ which was worth checking out.  We followed the track past another graveyard of broken 2WD’s and happened across the rock formation that with a lot of imagination you could see a few animal shapes that might explain the name.  Pretty imaginative for a dry community in any case!

                                            

                                             

It was then drive east and slightly north stopping at rest stops whenever we felt like a break or to check the cars, dust etc.  Quite often we would completely miss the rest stops on WikiCamps as just not being very visible tracks from the road.  We stopped at the Desert Surf Rest stop just because it sounds so intriguing and other bloggers/vloggers have mentioned it as a good campground.  It’s certainly very large and there are lot of places to camp judging by the numerous campfire pits left behind.  We had a quick cuppa and a quick walk to check out the rock face which, once again if you have a vivid imagination not fuelled by alcohol (this section of the GCR is all dry communities) you might consider to be a wave you could surf on.

Back in the cars and continued on with a surprising section of 50km of bitumen through an area prone to flooding which was nice followed by some sections of road that were as rough as the Gibb River Road.  We got close enough to Warburton for our phones to start pinging and I received a message form Beth telling me that her brother and sister in law (Rod and Jenny) are also on this section of road and heading in the same direction as us so to keep an eye out for them.  Small world indeed as we were thinking we are in the middle of nowhere and not thinking we are likely to bump into anyone we know!    We pulled over to a very average rest stop and ate our sandwiches and all of a sudden an hour and a half had passed!  Not really, it was just that when our phones had pinged they had also flicked us over onto NT time. 

                                            

A short drive into Warburton where we did another fuel top up and Larry broke another pump (having already destroyed one in Laverton) and then only another short drive to ‘Piggies Place’ rest stop which we have to ourselves again.  The cars and vans get set up in the usual L formation (this tie a little closer together so rogue camels can’t sneak up behind us) and we have the campfire going for another slap up meal of marinated salmon, creamy potato bake and veg followed by spiced apple damper.  We certainly don’t rough it on these holidays!