10 July 2016

We have now crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and are officially in the warm climes away from winter in the south.  This is a good thing and something to be celebrated.  We are in Halls Creek having completed the Tanami Road, a journey of about 1000 kms from Alice Springs.  We have driven from the centre of Australia to the north west area and the Kimberley region.  The Tanami Desert is vast, flat and practically empty but it evokes stories that need telling.

• Our first stop along the  road was to be at Tilmouth Springs, 200kms along the way and the first opportunity to top up our fuel.  The road house had no signs that would indicate the fuel company selling the fuel.  Clearly advertising is superfluous when you have no competitors. We pulled up to the fuel pump with a great sense of expectation.  This was our start to the Tanami and we were ready for the first part of our plan – fill up at Tilmouth.  The pump didn’t start.  I assumed the operator in the store needed to turn on the machine and fuel would flow.  I ambled up to the shop to be met by the lady operating the road house.  She greeted me with the words ‘we are out of fuel’.  What, a petrol station without fuel, that can’t be.  She assured us fuel would be arriving that afternoon or maybe tomorrow and that her competitor who is 100kms up the road had plenty.  We had fuel enough to do the next 100kms.  We stayed and enjoyed a coffee which had not run out.
• You have to appreciate the sense of humour of the person erecting the sign which says call 1800 XXXX for road conditions.  There is no mobile telephone reception out there nor any places with a phone where you could call and ask the question.  A perfect bureaucratic solution, make the public think there is a service being provided when there is none which means no cost! Everybody is happy.
• The sealed road continued for another 80kms ending about 20kms before the community of Yuendumu.  Now the Yuendumu petrol station is not like what you might find in the cities and towns of Australia, the UK or the USA.  There was a sign ‘Petrol’ painted on an old piece of metal with an arrow pointing in the direction of the Yuendumu community.  We followed the sign, searching for a roadhouse or something that might resemble a fuel filling station.  We made a couple of turns and there before us was a couple of fuel bowsers rising from the dirt.  No concrete hardstand here.  Some distance away was a rough hut that as a kid would have made a pretty good cubby house.  We pulled up and a character appeared out of the cubby house.  No shoes and very old and tattered clothes.  He greeted us with ‘I accept cash, card or bullion’.   So this was the place where we could fill our tanks.
• It turned out our fuel attendant had lived in Yuendumu for forty years.  His wife had been a teacher in the community.  He went on to explain he spoke some Walpiri, the local language and was good enough to tell a joke in Walpiri but did not consider himself to be an accomplished Walpiri speaker. Walpiri is a language spoken by only about 3000 indigenous people in central Australia.  Our fuel attendant went on to discuss languages in general and theories of education and learning.  This was a man worth listening to. He spoke Dutch, Spanish and English and of course a bit of Walpiri – enough to tell a joke and embarrass himself.
• As our conversation went on more customers arrived; he had the only fuel for 100s of kms in both directions.  When I commented he had customers waiting his response was: where are they going to go?  His competitors were 300kms in one direction and 500kms in the other.  Our conversation continued.  The fuel was $2.18 a litre so I was going get the most value out of my purchase if it included a conversation with a 60 year old Dutchman who had lived in the Tanami for 40 years in an Aboriginal community.
• After the fuel we dropped our tyre pressures down to 25psi and continued, ready for 700kms of dirt road and corrugations.  This was to be our remote adventure.  Our first night on the Tanami was at the Flooded Creek campsite.  We were the only ones there and the peace and silence was amazing.  As night fell the stars lit up the sky.  The Milky Way filled the sky as we spotted satellites and shooting stars.  Night photography was attempted with mixed results.
• Through the night we heard and saw the occasional Road Train, a semi trailer with four trailers.  We could see their headlights and the row of running lights along the following trailers.  Night time was clearly not the time to be on the During the day when a Road Train approached you pulled over and maybe stopped.  They move for no one, never slow and create dust clouds to behold.
• Our second day on the Tanami stated with a spectacular sunrise.  We hit the road for another 300kms plus day.  The road surface varied from good enough to do 90kph down to 60kph over the heavily corrugated sections.  There were no fences, buildings, cattle or even wild life except maybe for that wedge tail eagle we nearly hit and the camels we didn’t see.  Our travelling companion Russ called our attention to the camels over the radio but they had moved on by the time we got there (or he was making up their presence.)
• After 330kms we pulled up at the WA/NT border campsite.  It was about 2.00pm and we were ready for a break from driving.  The road varied a lot and there was no time to drop your guard.  The radio helped with the lead vehicle able to call out oncoming traffic and the rear driver able to call out passing traffic.  In fact there were very few other cars or trucks, the road is lightly travelled.  We camped well off the road and again we were on our own. Tonight it would be a lamb roast dinner with a 2006 shiraz.  Not bad for the middle of nowhere.  We were hesitant to claim we had conquered the Tanami and yet it was only 300kms to Halls Creek.
• Next morning, a 100 metres down the road and we had gone back an hour and a half.  We had started at 8.30am and now it was 7.00am, fantastic.   We had crossed into WA and a new time zone.  We had not however, finished with the Tanami a realisation reinforced by deteriorating road conditions and very soft sand and deep corrugations.    I heard a very slight change in the road noise which is pretty bad anyway but it seemed different.  I was curious so I found a ‘good’ surface to stop on to inspect my tyres.  Five were good, one not so.
• One tyre on the van was completed destroyed with the outer laminate wrapped around the axle.  Time to appreciate a good jack and the fact I had tightened all the wheel studs to a point I knew I could take a wheel off.  Half an hour of sweat and effort and we were back on the road.  No more spare tyre.
• The Billiluna community was our next refuelling stop and since I had emptied my gerry cans it was with great expectations that we arrived at the only fuel point for 100s of kms.  Where were the bowsers?  There were couple of shipping containers with buttons, maybe a pump and a hose attached.  Maybe this was the bowser?  A walk over to the ‘shop’ where you paid for what you thought you needed at $2.62 a litre.  You were given a card with a magnetic strip which you then used at the bowser in order to get your fuel.  We successfully filled our tank, a great feeling.  The fuel pump had a sign warning about ‘the’ camel which is aggressive, will corner you and it will bite.  We didn’t see the camel until we drove away, it was lurking behind the containers.  Just missed out on being bitten by a camel – maybe next time.
• By the time we arrived at Halls Creek the damage tally was:
  • Russ had lost one driving light; its somewhere on the Tanami.
  • One cupboard door came off in our van.
  • One tyre destroyed
  • The tailgate on the car is now difficult to open.
  • My radio antenna came off but was easily re-attached.
  • Dust everywhere but not as bad as expected.
• The good things that happened:
  • We found a thumb screw that secures the TV.  It had been missing for two years and was sitting in the middle of the van floor when we arrived in Halls Creek.
  • Our extra fuel got us through so the planning was right.
  • We dove the Tanami!

We are now at the Bungle Bungle caravan park with plans for an adventure into the park tomorrow sans the van.  Oh and we have two brand new tyres with better specifications than the last set.