So THIS is roughing it eh? Getting up at sunrise, putting the pot of water on the fire. Immediately, you start packing up and getting dressed. And bathroom etiquette?.....well,....there's sand, there's bushes, and occasionally, if you're lucky, a bushy tree. I think this is where I feel that camping is designed more for men. I DID finally work out what was needed and how to approach that side of things. I won't go into it, as I'm sure most of you are aware of it anyway. But I'm glad that I did get that part of camping sorted out.
And for packing? well....it's very cold in the early mornings, so EVERYTHING is stiff.....fingers, back, hips, and then there's the things your trying to cram into small bags that are stiff from cold as well. So, there was no leisurely mornings in the desert. Funny, though, that even if you were up at 6:30am,...we still didn't leave until around 8am. You wouldn't think it would take that long to get everything ready to travel, but for some reason it did. I guess there was more to do than I thought.
Not having a shower for 4 days wasn't too bad, although, ....it WAS a pleasure to have a HOT shower and wash my hair. It didn't seem like roughing it too much. Once we were out of the desert, showered, and had some dinner into our bellies, it was just like normal.
I must say though, that my first shower was actually in 3 days. It was at Purni bore. Chris and I had gotten our truck in first, so I grabbed my gear real fast and headed for the shower that had been set up there. There was a sign on the door that said ' turn on all the taps in the sink and the shower and let the water run for at least 10 minutes". well, it ran for about 5 to 10 minutes, and when I got in, it was tepid. Strong flow, but the hot water from the bore hadn't come through yet. So my first REAL HOT shower was at the next stop at the Mt. Dare station.
Those blue buildings are the toilets and showers. Cement floors with colourbond walls and roofs. While it wasn't 5 star, it was most certainly a VERY WELCOME sight and feeling for which I can only thank the folks at Mt. Dare for opening up their site to us. It was here too, that we met a man who was VERY impressed with the Scout. He wanted one just like it and his robust enthusiasm was met with good hearted humour and banter.
It was here that we were also woke up with the screeching Corellas coming in for their morning feed. There was about 200 or more Corellas and Galahs coming in. They almost looked like bats in the earlier hours, except for the screeching noise. It's a bit disconcerting to see it, but exciting too.
I really think the hardest part was going over those rocky roads. That was on the way to Alice Springs from Mt. Dare. For as far as you could see the scene changed around every corner. But, when we came across the gibber plains, there was nothing....nothing but red and purple rocks for miles and miles. And that included the road. It looked like a dried up ocean bed. I don't know what it was; whether it was the short wheel base Scout, or the springs, or what. But it was like being on a washing machine that was unbalanced ....for miles.....and miles,.......and MILES. And after driving on that kind of road for so long, you welcomed your bed at night. The following morning, you woke up stiff, but felt pretty good after things warmed up.
You may notice the rocks on the ground here with Chris's truck?...notice the line of rocks?....that's the edge of the road. Notice that the road itself is all rocks too? Yep, that was a hard one to handle. By the end of THAT road, I welcomed bitumen roads as soon as I saw them. Even Chris was rattled after that road, so I didn't feel too bad. Oh..and Chris under the truck?....well, he's putting the screws back on the diffs. All of the screws had come undone and we had already lost one screw. It wouldn't have been a pretty picture if we had lost the diffs.
I do have to say here, that Chris did most of the work. I just wasn't physically capable of doing a lot of the packing. Things like putting the sleeping bags into their TINY little bags. Wrapping the canvas camp beds up and putting THEM back into their tiny little bags, and then putting everything into the back of the truck. That's not to say, I couldn't camp and I did help, but in smaller ways. I just would have done it a different way, that's all. I do now understand how a swag would come in handy.
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