Day 5 Tuesday 21st June 2011 Wycliffe Well to Daly Waters

An early start this morning meant that we were on the road at 8:05 a.m. John and Helen came out to wave us off as we drove from the site. Coming into Tennant Creek, my phone made a few ‘knocks’ to let me know I had some messages. Jennifer asked if we needed anything done at home as there was a severe storm warning but the message was a tad late in arriving. Brigitte let me know that Carlien’s mum had died and although it’s sad, Carlien let us know a couple of weeks ago that her mum was not well so it wasn’t unexpected; she had her 100^th birthday in December – a good innings!

Most of the trip was uneventful except for a couple of incidents with driver’s caravan mirror. Same thing happened last year when semi-trailers with long, heavy trailers pass at speed and the mirror gets whipped off. This time, a low loader carrying 2 take-away houses whipped off the mirror but it stayed attached to the car (last year it rolled along the highway). After an adjustment, we resumed our journey when the twin to the first low-loader did the same thing. Gaffer tape to the rescue!

The vegetation is becoming taller and greener with new growth shining in the sun. Road damage after the floods is evident but not as bad as we thought it might be.  The Devil’s Marbles looked like gigantic lolly spuds (the ones that are rolled in cocoa). We’re going to check them out on the return trip.

Coming from the opposite direction were convoys of army vehicles. At regular intervals, a convoy would pass us and acknowledgements were made the usual Aussie way with a slight lifting of the driver’s right hand. We estimated that at least 100 vehicles passed us. Guesses about where they came from and where they were going turned out to be wrong. When we arrived at Daly Waters Hi-Way Inn, there were a few army recruits waiting with their vehicles on a side road.

Once we’d set up the van and Bobby had a beer, he went off to explore the park.  On his return, he told me that he’d spoken with the army recruits at length. Turns out that they were members of RAEME (Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) which was the group Bobby was attached to when he was in National Service. I suspect secret handshakes all around with a bit of bullshit as well.

Before arriving at this CP, we went into Daly Waters to get a site but it was full with the overflow area filling up fast. It was tight with cars and vans lining up like a car race on a grid ready for a Le Mans start. We gave it a miss and retraced our steps to this park but could only get an unpowered site. It’s not cold yet so I don’t think we’ll miss the heater.  Site was $14 and included a free beer.

Robert really wanted to check out a Mr Chook at the pub. Apparently, he’s renowned for his entertaining skills. We’ll see him on our return trip back to Adelaide.

The CP also serves barra burgers so we had that for tea – delish!!! A couple of Muscovy ducks met us as we were going for a walk around the park so the stale bread came in handy. They were people-friendly as Robert patted their feathers and lightly pulled on their tails while they gobbled the bread.

We also met Buster the Jack Russell and his owners who are from Mt Gambier and know Andrew’s mum, Joy. Such a small world!

We’re hoping that Mataranka isn’t as busy as this because we can’t book in with no phone coverage. Buying a cheap Telstra phone at next major town so that we have a double chance of connecting is at the top of the shopping list.