Sitting by the campfire, the night sky bright with stars it’s easy to recount the days travels. Especially when eating chocolate. Kerry has calculated how many pieces per day to make it last. We each have a block. I stuck to the quota on night one, for a bit, but since then, well lets just say mine will be all gone well before hers!
We’re about 100km from Cobra station and on the Dairy Creek to Cobra Road. We’re not ON the road as such, but about 300m off and hidden in behind some recent diggings that we assume are for road base. Someone had left a pile of timber and a fire ring, so rather than gather all our own wood it made sense to use theirs!
We might as well be right on the road, we came across one car travelling today, and a push bike. But first the story needs to go back to Wooleen where we spent last night. Great accommodation. Very happy to pay their asking price as a concrete way of supporting their ventures.
The road into Murchison was dryer than yesterday, with minimal overnight rain.
We arrived at Murchison settlement roadhouse, one of three buildings if you count the toilet block. The other is the shire office. Yes, there is no town in the Shire of Murchison, just this settlement, hamlet is too English a description. This oasis of tall river gums, rammed earth buildings and inhabited by 17 locals. Not quite sure where they live ….
Coffees bought we got to ask about Sid. Sid was a character we met two years ago at Murchison. He wasn’t the gardener, he was the raker. A quietly spoken gentle man who’d obviously had a drink or two in his life, he was happy to tell us his life story, spin a few yarns and generously share his smelly camphor concoction that kept the flies away. A real character of the bush. He couldn’t talk for too long though, he had raking to do. He carefully place his upturned milk crate in the correct spot on the servo gravel forecourt, place his wheels bin behind d him, then sit and rake. Taking long deliberate sweeps with him leaf rake, he would clear a semi circle then move along. He might not have always been a peaceful soul, but he was when we met him, and I’m sure I spotted a tear I his eye when I gave him a couple of small Easter eggs two years ago. Not so good for his diabetes, but I’m guessing that didn’t bother him much.
Sadly Sid died not so long ago. They had a memorial service for the community last Friday A few of his ashes were spread under the gazebo.
Next stop was the Shire Office of the Shire of Murchison. We needed to check the road condition to the north, knowing the Karratha and port Hedland region had record breaking rain, 220 ml in one day, and this rain had been heavy further south too.
We’d been listening to the ABC radio each day, with my new antenna doing a wonderful job keeping us in touch in the outback.
The news was not good from the Shire. We could get into Cobra along Dairy Creek road, our original plan. But once there the roads to the east and west were closed. And the road north of Mt Augustus though Pingandy station was closed. Ashburton Downs Station had 45mm of rain so it was likely the way north from Cobra, Mt Augustus will be barred. There’s a big fine for going on closed roads, you may get stuck but worse you cut up the roads and it hardens with your wheel tracks and needs expensive grading to fix the mess.
We figured the roads would dry out quickly and we’d get to Cobra and see how things panned out.
Whilst at the Shire offices, I noticed they sold special edition number plates. After a bit of a think, and Kerry pleased she’d found my next birthday present, we’ve ordered MU128 which might be delivered by … 12.8! So no longer will my car be frowned upon in the streets of Carine, I’ll be a visitor from the country in a very country vehicle!
With all this mucking around, it was 11am before we hit the road again. Despite the rain, the road was in good condition and allowed for an easy 80 to 90 kmh speed.
We arrived at the special Bilung Pool for lunch and tossed up staying the night. The best place to camp was down by the billabong amongst the river gums and perenties. Unfortunately the river sand was possibly a little too risky to negotiate towing the heavy trailer, and travelling alone we need to make sensible decisions about driving off the beaten track. But for a really cool campsite, this one ticks all the boxes.
For some of the day we’d noticed some wiggly lines on the road. Push bike lines. A bit odd to see these In the middle if no where we speculated that it was the exercise routine for the grader driver. But this was not the case, and before long we came across a young chap we named Peter for want of knowing his real name. Well kitted out with plenty of carry bags, solar panels for his technology and a bike helm it sitting unstrapped on top of his floppy brimmed sun hat. He seemed very happy to have some people to talk to. He was on his way to Darwin and had spent a week at Wooleen, having left Perth three weeks ago. He’d not heard any news about rainfall and road closures but may have been reassured by me saying that by the time he gets there they will be open again. He was certainly very pleased to be given two oranges and apples!!
On we drove, the road got rougher, but with decreased tyre pressures 35 in the font and 40 in the rear, the veggiCruza sailed through it all with 4wd engaged.
Realising we still had two hours to go to get to Bangemall Inn, yes it’s called bang ’em all Inn, we started looking for a spot to camp. Of course this was just after we had passed a number of nice creeks, but this spot is fine. Up high with graded access to the gravel pit. Fingers crossed we will be able to get past Cobra in one direction or other tomorrow.
