The Best of Days and the Worst of Nights (Friday 10th)

We couldn’t get petrol until 9am so not a huge hurry this morning and it didn;t take too long to pack the car and ute ready for departure. Petrol $1.98 ltr and it took $96 and some cents to fill the ute. Today I decided to drive the ute and had Aunty T with two of the kids as my crew. We set off on Cobra Road, so named for Cobra Station that the road runs through. We had not gone long when we had to stop for a photo shoot for purple flowers, lol. Whilst everyone was busy looking at those, I noticed these green mango looking things on a vine draped through a bush. I asked the WM what they were and she was very excited, because I had found some bush tucker!! I had found some native pears. When you open them they are full of seeds that can be eaten and unfortunately these were too green to eat. They smelt like green peas and the seeds were yellowy green – not sure what they would look like ripe. I happened to look down at my feet just after finding these pears and taking several photos of same, when I saw my sneakers and socks crawling with bull ants. These things bite/sting so there I am hopping from foot to foot doing a very good imitation of an audition for Riverdance, wiping each leg of my jeans with the other and swooshing the ants of my shoes and socks. Luckily, I managed to either kill and brush off every ant without being stung/bitten though my flesh is still crawling at the thought of them.















I think we had 280k of gravel/dirt/mud roads that we drove over today and it was awesome. The rain had made several parts of the roads more than boggy, my first bit of fun was driving at about 80k into mud that went up to the axle. We sashayed from side to side, and I thought I was going to get bogged for a minute (and a small almost underwear changing moment when I realised there was a ditch to the immediate right of where I was heading), when the tyres grabbed and we got through. Not much further up ahead, was this huge mud puddle that looked reasonably tricky to get through. The WM got out to take photos while the WMH and Co went through first as they wanted to stop and take photos of me coming through - or not. I aimed to go through where their tracks were having learnt from my previous near catastrophe, revved up the ute, and went for it.

Talk about yee haa and ride him cowboy, water sprayed everywhere, we slid to the left, then straightened and shot through without missing a beat. Everyone was in fits of laughter- both vehicles dripping with mud. This is the WM's car going through, lol.

A bit further down the road we stopped again as there were several ruins in a paddock. The WM and I both hopped over the fence all the better to take photos up close. Nearly had a nasty moment when the leg of my jeans caught on the top barbed wire strand of the fence and had a fleeting picture of myself hanging upsidedown in extremis, lol, nearly did a nosedive into the paddock and just managed to right myself in time.


Next thing I spotted a hawk in a tree, braked, and managed to get a couple of good photos before catching up with the others just as the WM speared herself in the leg with a branch as she went to climb a tree for some photos! She pulled the wood stuck in her leg out, and we were off again.






The landscape was very rocky with scoria type rock everywhere, with scrub and lots of white looking rock. It felt like we were driving on top of the world in places. After stopping arbitrarily just over a creek crossing in the middle of nowhere for lunch we were on our way again towards the Kennedy Ranges.

(Us stopped for lunch - note the sort of roads we were driving on.)

We spotted some cattle in the shade under some trees and should have stopped for a photo but the others were up ahead aways, so kept driving. Out this way you will drive for miles and then come to a cattle grid that seems to appear for neither rhyme nor reason except there are huge tracts of land fenced off to each side of the grid. We had passed numerous grids during the course of the trip when I found myself in some loose dirt on the right hand side of the road, heading directly into the corrugated iron. I went to straighten out of the slide and kept going right thinking, this is not good, oh hell, hit the anchors (Aunty T already had the brakes on, on her side of the ute, lol) and managed to stop about a two feet away from taking out the front of the ute (and the fence). Straightened up, managed to get through the middle of the gateway and off we went in fits of laughter at our narrow escape!. The kids made the comment it was the best day ever and they were glad they had come in the ute for this part of the trip. We caught up with the rest just as they had stopped on the brow of the hill to see 5 eagles fly up off a kangaroo carcass lying in the middle of the road. I have to say, I have picking up my camera, getting it switched on and ready to use, with one hand, pretty perfected by now. Took what photos I could of the birds, all now in flight. We all sat there for awhile hoping they would come back but to no avail so the WM and Co moved on. I sat there for a minute or two longer and OMG, one did come back. Very carefully got some photos of him sitting on the side of the road, and then after some mins more, he flew onto the carcass and started eating. Well, the camera nearly melted with the amount of photos I tried to take. What an amazing moment and to be so close to such a magnificent bird. I think we might have stayed a little to long, because the other crew were headed back towards us just as we were moving on, so gave them a wave and drove off to the next stop off in the front, lol.

The next bit of road was much improved, almost four cars wide as the road was used by traffic putting the gas pipeline in up there so amped up the speed to 110k for most of next bit. We turned off into the Kennedy Ranges National Park which had three walks and of the three, picked the shortest to look at the honeycomb cliffs that have been formed by rain, wind and erosion. The ranges are huge and dominate the landscape for some time as you drive towards them. There are some different shaped hills and then this long plateau of rock that goes for miles. There were huge boulders lying about the base of the honeycomb cliffs and I was amused to see one of the cliff faces looked just like Jabba the Hutt and another one looked like the head of a turtle.











Jabba the Hutt (ab0ve)This is what a gentle stage 3 track looks like, heh heh -a gentle climb! (above right)



This is a view of the honeycomb cliff. There was a waterfall to the right which was dry and a small pool which you can just see in the bottom right hand corner that looks like mud. Not the best shot as it was late afternoon in the shade.


It was getting late, so decided to get going to our evening destination at Gasgoyne Junction. We hadn’t got back to the main road, when I heard that very distinctive noise, and yes, I stopped immediately and hopped out to discover the right rear tyre was extremely flat. (Flashback memories to when I lost the whole rear wheel earlier in the year, lol). BUGGAR!!!!. Just as well The WM & Co were behind me, as who knew that the spare wheel was underneath the vehicle and had to be accessed by something resembling key hole surgery through the back of the ute just under the tray!!!!!

The wheel nuts had been undone and the jack placed on a block of wood but that was not high enough to get the wheel off the hub. Just as the WMH was getting his jack out of his car to use as well, a truck pulled up beside us and two blokes hopped out to give us a hand. They work for McConnel Dowel (same company that helped build the steel mill at Glenbrook) and are involved in building a pipeline from here to below Perth, I think they said. They provided the hammer to bash the wheel off the hub and also helped chisel off all the red dirt off the spare tyre so it could be fitted onto the ute. As one of them had his head under the back of the ute, he commented on the fact that the muffler was hanging by a thread. Well, a few thwacks and tugs, and the end bit of the muffler was tossed in the back of the ute. It now sounds like a V8 (would be great if it went like one, lol). I was very impressed with myself as I had commented earlier in the day that it sounded as though there was a hole in the muffler, and I was right except it was more than a hole!

The trip onto Gasgoyne remained relatively uneventful with just two kangaroos to dodge and about five cattle that lurched from the undergrowth to cross the road as we drove past them. First thing I noticed about Gasgoyne Junction is that a lot of the houses are built on stilts about 2 foot off the ground. We crossed the river coming into town which covered the roadway in one place but OMG, how huge is this river when it must be in full flood. The town would be completely cut off. There does not appear to be a shop in the entire spot although we passed a goodly sized school. We found the pub/camp where we are staying and set ourselves up for the night. The accommodation here looks like rows of containers. You open a door onto a bed, with a fridge, small bench, tv, kettle and toaster in one corner, and a bathroom with basin, shower and toilet as a separate room and that is about it. There is a built in wardrobe up beside the bed and you have to shuffle sideways to move about the room, lol. B and T are staying in one of those while the rest of us are in tents again as there is no hint of rain for tonight. There is a garage of sorts connected to the pub and a small shop as part of that. Bread here is $7.50 a loaf! We were going to have dinner in pub at first but at $38.50 for the cheapest meal, we ate up what we were saving for tomorrow night instead as we can restock at the roadhouse on the way to Nanga Bay.
The place is full of guys all working on the pipeline so we figure that is the reason everything costs so much. I am sitting in my tent as this is a powered site, but still no reception – hanging out for that tomorrow. Have an early start so will stop typing now - its nearly 11pm.

Written in retrospect:
Well, I don't know why I bothered to stop typing because OMG, the pub did not close until 1am!! As we were basically on the front lawn (to the side of the pub), we may as well have sent up camp in the bar. The juke box or the equivalent of played some reasonable songs and that would have been ok, but the yobbos who were drinking in there were another story. Several of them lurched back and forth from the pub to their rooms further out the back than us, and it was all the effing and blinding, more effing, yobbo talk - all at a yell that put the icing on the cake. At 1.30am some local yokel hopped in his unmufflered car and I heard him drive - all the way home!!!! I believe the last time I checked my watch, it was 1.45am!!!! Note to self and anyone else travelling - avoid Gasgoyne Junction if you can.