We are still adjusting to NT time, and the alarm went off and it was still dark and we were still feeling sleepy and used to WA time. But we got up and and got to enjoy the sunrise, as we packed up and Matt enjoyed breakfast whilst watching it. The colours were sensational, with a little cloud cover for added special effects. It was a cooler morning, but even though it doesn’t look like a desert, we were in one, so we shouldn’t have been surprised it was cooler. We went for a short stroll to try and work out who made what footprints in the sand, and we think there was a gecko, birds of varying sizes and a dingo. We headed back onto the dirt road but fortunately not for long, as this brand new double lane asphalt road appeared sooner than we had expected. Oh the joy to our ears, and body after the previous 2 days of bumps and bounces, shakes and rattles. Matt added air back into the tyres, as he had lowered the pressure to do the dirt road. Being a heavy vehicle with an air clutch and brake system, Matt can easily use that air instead of his own breath, to reinflate the 6 big wheels. Even if I wanted to I can’t blow up tyres with my own breath. I’m talented but not that good. We were back in motion before long and enjoying the quiet! We stopped at Tilmouth Well for a fuel top up at $2.75/litre for diesel, which was our second most expensive fuel, the most expensive being Mt Barnett on the Gibb at $2.95😱. We noticed some birds coming to a puddle of water for a drink, here. There were little finches, and tiny doves flittering in and out for a drink or splash and then these Guinea Fowls came running over wabbling from side to side as they ran, they didn’t want to miss out on the action. It was very funny to watch.
We headed back onto the Tanami, Matt had been observing and counting all the ex-cars in the bush rusted or upside down, and I was noting lots of ex-cows beside the road too. But neither had seem to have caused the demise of the other. The lovely two lane road, then became a single lane of asphalt with gravel on either side. We know from roads like these in outback Queensland, that the general rule is that the smaller vehicle gives way or allows the biggest vehicle to stay on the road, and the smaller vehicle pulls over or drives along the edge. Fortunately only smaller vehicles came the other way and they all respected us and ceded so we could stay on the asphalt. Luckily no road trains came along. But we thought it was strange that they had made this lovely two lane road over 300km in the middle of the track, yet the road that led from the Stuart Highway, was still a single lane. We pulled off for Matt to enjoy lunch before we reached the Stuart Highway and made sure we took a photo of Bridget after she had achieved driving on another notorious road.
We stopped at Aileron roadhouse briefly to see the big Anmatjere man sculpture.
From there we headed north, and stopped at Ti Tree for the night. We did our routine clean up of dirt and dust, Matt got under Bridget for a checkup and cleaned out the dirt filled engine bay. We are ahead of schedule but this will give us more time in future stops.
On another random dull bit of trivia, we have crossed this country from south to north up the middle on the Stuart hwy, and on our way back we are travelling north on the Stuart hwy again. And we haven’t come back via the Nullarbor either… That’s not how normal people do it. (Hint for tomorrow we are travelling to the Barkley hwy and turning right to go to Queensland) we won’t travel south on the Stuart at all between Katherine and port Augusta. Just a weird thought that popped into my head when retracing our steps up the middle again today.
