Country Retreat - 30. New Year New Adventures

Once Mum had left, I watched my siblings playing outside on the lawn while Gran was getting dinner prepared, as well as starting on Christmas Day, which ended up being a great time for all, with Dad coming down Christmas Eve and staying until Boxing Day morning before driving home to the farm. Mum was away for two weeks, so I had to remain home to assist Gran with looking after the little ones, who were always on the go with the energy that even tired me out too.

A week after the New Year, Mum finally arrived back to collect the kids and take them back home to the farm, as I was making final preparations for my journey across the Nullabor. I wasn’t going to rush the trip, I planned to take 2 weeks to get to Canberra, so I could have a look around as I am travelling. I spent some time on my computer planning the trip, which included a rough cost of fuel, accommodation and food for the whole journey, as well as which route I would be taking.

I was just days away from leaving home to drive across the country to attend university at ANU when I received an unexpected call from Giles. “How long before you leave to drive across the Nullabor?” he asked me when I answered the call. “In a few days, why do you ask?” I replied, wondering what this was about.

“Well, I applied to attend a few universities, including two in SA, and I have heard back that I have been accepted at Flinders University just out of Adelaide, with a partial scholarship, which is my first preference. Can I by any chance hitch a ride with you as far as Adelaide please?” Giles asked me.

“Wow, that is great news mate, will you be doing the same course as Murdoch is offering?” I responded, “Yes, but it specialises in Digital Forensics, which is what I want to do,” Giles replied, “Well in that case I would enjoy having you as my travel buddy. I have already set out a travel plan, I will send it over to you, so you can see my plans, and see if it fits in with your schedule,” I said to Giles.

“Sounds good mate, I just have to get all my luggage packed and sort out a few things, so I will be ready to leave in three days if that works out ok with you,” Giles asked. “Three days sounds perfect. I will send you an email, and let me know what you think,” I said to Giles, and as soon as the call ended, I opened up my laptop and sent the travel plan document that I had made the other day.

Ten minutes later, I received a text message from Giles. “Travel plan looks great, it’s a go for me, see you in three days mate.” This made me smile, and I let Gran and Gramps know that I would have one of my friends travelling with me as far as Adelaide, which they were very pleased to hear. The next day, Giles messaged me, suggesting that he stay over the night before leaving, so that the vehicle is all loaded and ready to go the next morning, and after asking Gran, it was agreed that he could do that.

Although we could make it to Adelaide comfortably in just four days, after some discussions with Giles, we decided to take our time and explore some of the places that we drive through, so we would take a full week to get to Adelaide, with some of it camping out, so Giles included his swag in with his luggage. The morning before departure, Gran and I went food shopping, so that we wouldn’t waste money on buying expensive food at the Roadhouses on the way, and it was all carefully loaded into the large food chest and dual-zone car fridge, ready to be put in the car before we leave in the morning.

When Giles arrived in the late afternoon, he had with him a large backpack, which had all his computer and technology in it, and another backpack with travel clothes for a few days, his swag, plus two very large suitcases, while I only had one large suitcase, one swag, a breifcase for my computer and laptop and a backpack with travelling clothes, for all of my gear. Once we had loaded up all of our luggage into my new vehicle, which Giles had seen for the first time, we relaxed for what was left of the afternoon.

We had decided to leave at 7 am so that we could get to our first overnight stop at Norseman at a reasonable time in the afternoon, with an estimated eta of around 3.30 pm, which would include a few short stops to stretch our legs a little, and Giles said that he was happy to share the driving duties with me, especially since it would allow him to drive my new vehicle.

The next morning, Gran cooked us a big breakfast, and after loading up the Fridge and Chest Cooler, we said farewell to my grandparents, and we set off eastwards. I had set out rest breaks every two or three hours, usually at a main town or location, and after 6 hours of driving we made our second stop at Coolgardie, where the plan was to turn south for Norseman from there.

“How would you feel if we made a slight deviation from our plans, which would extend the journey by an extra 930 kilometres?” I asked Giles, as Coolgardie was the location where the deviation needs to be taken if we take the alternative route. “That sounds interesting, but what other route is there to get to… Wait are you meaning taking the Central Road to Yulara?” Giles asked when he realised what I was saying.

Chuckling, I nodded my head yes. “Are we fitted out to handle a difficult road like that? I hear that it is quite a rough trip?” Giles asked me. “Yes, I have an extended fuel tank, I have additional fresh water containers, two extra containers of diesel, totalling 50 litres, we are stocked up with frozen, cold and non-perishable food, a large first aid kit, and we are fitted with a UHF radio as well as an EPIRB device for emergencies, and I have an additional spare tyre and a tyre repair kit,“ I replied.

“Wow, you are well prepared. Was this your plan all along, to go the alternative route?” Giles asked me, “Only if it is ok with you, and I only thought about this once I knew you were coming along,” I responded, and after a few moments of thinking, “I think this would be great, and we get to see Uluru up close too, which will be awesome,” Giles said to me. Driving past the turnoff to head to Norseman, we continued on East to the city of Koolgardie, with our new overnight stop to be the town of Laverton which is the starting point of the Central Road, which meant a further 4 ½ hours of driving, so it would be just dark before we get there.

At Kalgoorlie, we made a phone call to book a room at the motel in Laverton, which would be our last comfort until we arrived in Yulara in two days, and we grabbed a bit to eat, choosing to buy something, as we needed to eat as we go, if we were going to get to Laverton at a reasonable time. Although tired from all of the driving we had done the day, I was glad when we finally arrived at the motel in Laverton, just at dusk and checked into our room, which was fairly basic, but that is all we needed. Giles headed to the bathroom for a shower first and came out butt naked when he was finished, which caused me to quickly turn away, and Giles laughed.

“What! Jealous of my big sex tool are you?” Giles said to me as I heard him organising clothes to put on, “No, I just don’t like seeing guys naked, because of what happened to me at my old school,” I responded, “Oh, yeah, sorry, I had forgotten about that, I will behave from now on,” Giles replied, as I headed into the bathroom for my shower. Once freshened up, we headed down the road to have a meal at the pub, which would be our last treat, before hitting the outback gravel road tomorrow.

Back at the motel after a very nice dinner, we looked at the journey ahead of us and saw that there was only one place where we could have an overnight stop, which was at Warburton, a distance of 550 kilometres of corrugated gravel roads, although there is one other roadhouse, about 300 kilometres. Still, there was no point stopping there overnight, because of the short distance, so we would only stop there briefly for a bit of a walk.

The next morning with Giles driving, we turned onto the Great Central Road, and what surprised both of us, was that it was a sealed road, and it remained sealed for a good 50 kilometres, which made it easy travelling for us for the first half an hour. And there was just another 255 kilometres to our first stop. When we did arrive at Tjukayirla Roadhouse, I was glad to be able to walk around, as we had experienced a few nasty patches of corrugations.

Three and a half hours and 245 kilometres later, we arrived at Warburton Roadhouse, which was our overnight stop, and once again the accommodation was fairly basic, but we would only be there for one night. Near our accommodation, we found an art gallery, which we checked out, as it had some very interesting locally produced artwork. Afterwards, we set up my portable BBQ and had a nice BBQ dinner, using the food that we have in the fridge/freezer, and listened to the desert nightlife, as all the bright stars came into full view.

The following morning, with Giles taking over the driving once more, we continued onwards, with our next destination being Giles Meteorology Station, which also has a museum, and it would take us about three hours to get there. We spent a bit longer there than planned, as there was a lot more to see than we expected, but we continued with me driving for the next stage of our journey across the Western Australian desert, stopping briefly to watch a small herd of camels cross the road.

We passed by some amazing ranges, as we continued East, and at the WA / NT border, the gravel road disappeared, much to my delight, but as we passed the turnoff to the Docker River Airfield twelve kilometres down the road, the gravel road returned, and I grumbled about this for a few minutes, much to Giles’s amusement.

Half an hour later, we stopped to check out Lasseter’s Cave, which was also where the bitumen returned, but only for one kilometre. For the next two hours, we drove on for another hour, before we finally reached bitumen road again just before another dry river crossing, the sixth such crossing since Docker River.