This morning, after the fire crackers stopped being let off around 11pm last night, we had one go off at 6am, just to start the day! We got told that for the next month or so, crackers will be let off at any time of the day around town. We had to get up and pack up and say goodbye to Nhulunbuy and start the trek home. But before we left, we had lined up one more activity - a photoshoot at The Hog Shed music venue for the owner Dan. We met him there, (he turned up in his LC3 Morris Commercial rat rod truck) and we lined up the Clippers outside the venue. To thank us we got given a Hogs shed bar mat and drink coolers. Really nice guy and so very grateful for meeting us and seeing the Clippers. David thinks ive found my people up here, car guys , hot rods, musos and long grey beards.
After this meeting, we headed onto the road out to the 'track' as all the locals call it - Central Arnhem Road (675km and the only road to Nhulunbuy), passing a wild dingo on the way. I guess calling the main road a track is probably more apt, considering how poor the condition of the road is in places. Matt led the Clippers, providing commentary over the CB radio to warn David and Ian about upcoming road damage or oncoming traffic, or animals crossing the road. Today we saw wallabies and kangaroos, eagles, a bustard, emu, water buffalo, horses, donkeys, cows, lizards and snakes. We also saw idiots ignoring the no visibility from road dust from other vehicles and one of these times, it almost ended in a head on collision, but Matt was able to veer left, and the overtaking vehicle veered right and the oncoming vehicle went between them, phew! But we saw the best and worst of drivers today and survived.
most people will contact you on the cb to see if its safe to pass and wait for a go ahead. i also tell people that are coming up behind me of approacing vehicles to avoid this type of situation. clearly this guy didnt have a radio or didnt care. i radioed about the oncoming car asi looked in my mirror to see how far behind me he was, only to see him come out of the dust cloud beside me. at this point he saw the oncoming 4wd, and stupidly went for the right side of the road at the same time the oncoming car headed left putting them in a headon situation. i headed to the far left and the oncoming car seeing the gap then swerved right to go between us. the overtaking car then sped off into the dust. idiots.
We stopped briefly for morning tea and lunch, but it was a long day for the fellas, driving around 9 hours to do 480km of the dirt track. We were glad to pull in back at Mainoru Store again, for the night. We first had to sweep and mop out the red dirt, before we could clean up ourselves. i was orange again. and will be tomorrow. The water was so hot in the water tank from all the driving and the warm day, we didn't miss the hot water system. In fact, the water coming out of the cold tap was almost too hot! Then I cooked dinner and made the bus even hotter, it was very humid as well. I was glad to step out of the bus, despite the midges and mozzies being about. We had dinner together and sang happy birthday to Simon, and finished the rest of the mud cake off, that I had made a few days earlier. I made sure I enjoyed the stars, while the evenings are still warm, as the weather will cool right down, the further south we go.
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