Gary Junction Road

28 April 2012

April 22nd

It rained most of the night, which means Tanami got his shower. He now looks more like the teddy-bear that it is, than a sorry ball of dirty rag when we picked him up. His designated seat will be between the headlights, on the roofrack. This should keep him away from most of the dust, prevent him from drowning when we cross rivers and keep him safe from anyone willing to steal him.

We’ve got two options this morning (by the way, the homecooked bread was delicious, thank you very much). Either drive down the Tanami Road for another 100km and pick up the Gary Jcn through a clearly mapped road, or drive back for 50km and shortcut through a, well, not so clearly mapped track… Guess which one we (I) picked ?

It seemed like a good idea at first but as we progress, the track slowly disappears and only a very faint tyretrack from a previous wanderer make it possible for us to reach Derwent. On our way, we pass first an abandoned airstrip, which is on land that has been bought back by the State and given back to the local communities. Sadly, as it is often the case, the buildings are vandalized and left to rot. Pity. Still, after three hours of bush-bashing through thick mallee and spinifex, at no more then 30km/h, we find, rather accidentally, Derwent. It’s an outstation ran by an Aussie bloke and his family. He seems genuinely surprised we came this far and found the old track which hadn’t been used for a good decade… I can truly thank Claire’s navigational skills ! She can obviously read a map better than I can…

After Derwent, the road is easy. Actually, way too easy. It used to be called the “Crystal Highway”. Rob, Tilmouth Roadhouse manager explained the area forbids any grog (Aussie slang for alcohol), so the truckies used to buy their spirit in Alice, drink the bottle and throw it by the window. Broken glass littered both sides of the road and sunshine made it look like crystal, hence the name.

Since then, the Gary Junction Road has been re-graded to a wide and rather smooth road. It no longer is the dreaded sandy and bushy road most drivers feared, and quite frankly I was looking forward to.

We arrive at Papunya an hour later but today is Sunday, so the police station is closed and there is no information about the road conditions for the Sandy Blight. Bah we’ll just wing it then.

Wind is picking up, rain is coming. I predict a restless bushcamp tonight.

Distance today: 188km, total: 14116km.

April 23rd

A very windy night, but the rain eased. It’s almost clear blue sky today, but we can clearly feel the cold desert morning. Cold morning means hot shower. Luxury ! Well, not really a shower when you allocate roughly 2L per person, but you get the idea…

Bad news though, either while bushbashing to Derwent, or while trying to find a campspot, but we ripped a tyre wall. I suspect the soft walls BF Goodrich aren’t as strong as advertised, since a third of the thread is gone and only 15.000k. I must look into that.
Anyways, how to change a tyre on soft sand : use your shovel flat end to stabilize the jack, and hoe it doesn’t sink in… Job done in less then 10min. Yay ! Still, at 300bux a tyre, it’s not great news.

The Gary JCN turns out to be very very disappointing.

Boring even. Nevermind, we found the old track some 50m north where we set up camp for the night, after Claire sees her first wild camels, first a family of four, then a herd of 100 gathered by the local park rangers. These animals are actually way too numerous in the area, and they try to bring the number down. Off the 100 we see today, half will be slaughtered for dog and cat food, half will be sent overseas for breeding projects in the Middle East.

Distance today: 210km, total: 14326km.