We had breakfast with the birds at the space we now consider our private birding spot. Sure enough, after some quiet waiting ,the crimson finches were there with us, along with some paperbark flycatchers and a brief view of the purple crowned wrens before all went quiet again. We have learned to tell the black and white flycatchers from the willie wagtails as they sit very still instead of wagging tails all over the place and are larger. They also make a weird buzzing sound (zzzt, zzzt)
We sorted out our rubbish into the various types of recyclables (two types of cans, paper, plastic, organic waste) leaving us just with the genuine rubbish to carry onward ( filling one one litre milk container) as we head onwards. We also filled our water containers with the decent water they have coming out of the tap at Mornington since we have no idea when more will be available.
Those flat topped hills on the way out are amazing…
We were at the radio point just before the GRR at 11:15. (93 km out from the sanctuary)
We hit a really nice patch of road for nearly 10 km after brief section of roadworks on the GRR after turning to the west. We were able to travel at 90km/hr and overtake a vehicle without risk of rock damage for the first time in a long time. Then we were back to piles of dirt in the centre with new track on either side (still an improvement on the general GRR conditions) and back to the good road all the way into Imintji. Here we put in 50l of fuel at $2.00/litre and bought some biscuits and a couple of weis bars for a treat. We were hoping possibly for milk, eggs, bread and maybe some fresh fruit or veg but this was not to be. The next week or so before we find a shop may become VERY interesting.
At 1:15 we were still cooling our heels waiting for our travelling companions to arrive, having had late morning tea and lunch. We hope they are OK. The saving grace of our elongated stop (and the reason for it -so that Al can use Trev’s Optus coverage to make a call to Broome to set up some repairs) was Optus coverage. This little community has a small Optus coverage area. Not surprisingly the shop sells Optus phone cards. I suspect they get through a few of these. We were able to catch up on family news (including pictures of precious Sophia who we are greatly missing) and Trev’s emails while we waited.
Ev and Craig turned up about 1:30 with the sad news that Zita and Al have had a bit of a disaster. Driving behind them on that new patch of road there was suddenly a burning smell and they used the UHF to tell them to pull over when they noted smoke. They have either broken their axle or done something to wheel bearings on their van. The guys working on the road wanted them to move it, but they didn’t think they could without the whole thing collapsing.
A half hour or so later Zita and Al arrived in their car. The road workers had said they would keep an eye on the van and Zita and Al had driven in to where they could make phone calls. We left the four others and went ahead to find campsites for two vehicles and Colwells left not too long after with the future plans for Al and Zita still unknown. One tow truck company on Derby had said they could be there Thursday morning to take the van. (it was currently Tuesday afternoon). We have seen what can happen to vehicles left behind on the road and understand that they feel very reluctant to do so, but can you camp in a broken van right on the road?
We are once again away from phone coverage, so will have to wait and see what happens from here. Al and Zita have been to Bell Gorge before, so at least they aren’t missing out on something they haven’t seen before.
We had a quiet night at the camping ground with spirits a bit dampened due to the mishap of the day.
The large termite mounds peered at us from around the campground. I wonder what they were thinking.
Luvapuzzle 