Setting off again, we’re seriously good at packing up these days, and we’ve got a big day ahead, as the normal road to Bedourie is closed, meaning an additional 50-70 km in detours. Boo.
The sun is pretty vicious today, and it’s shaping up into a head wind too. Not ideal, and the group is just slogging away.
Rick (in the sweep truck) tries valiantly to keep morale up…it’s good to have him out here sometimes!
By the time we finally turn back to Bedourie after the detours, we’re all knackered, and it’s a welcome stop for morning tea near a weird little natural spring bubbling up from under a sand dune. Neat!
A large herd of cattle make some mischief after morning tea, along with the occasional dust ball truck!
Rick once again provides a welcome drink stop and some cookies, before we finally make the turn back to the north along the recently re-opened road into Bedourie.
The next 22 km’s is a total blast, with a healthy tails wind, bitumen and a bunch of water crossings that cheers everyone up a heap … cool fun!
Arriving into Bedourie ends one of the hardest days so far, and after a quick set up of tents, it’s off to the town swimming pool for a cool dip. Ahhh.
Bedourie is a neat little place, with some amazing infrastructure – pool, sports center, council chambers – all in all it seems way out of proportion with the population. After a chat with the locals, we discover that it’s a centre for quite a few big cattle stations and a bunch of satellite townships. We also discover that we’re a little lucky to get through on the roads, as they’ve only re-opened 2 days before, and had been closed for over 2 months. Wow!
There are bugs here in proportions that we haven’t seen before, and the locals tell us they all came in on a storm front 3 days ago. We’re talking walls colored black with bugs, and dead bugs over 1cm deep around the toilets and showers. Quite amazing – thank heavens for tent fly screens…
< end of day 18 >
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