Day 30: Bitter Springs – Churchill’s Head (somewhere in the NT) 

Brrrr.

Let me say that again.

Brrrr.

We went to bed last night pretty early. I think that MBW was asleep by 9.30pm, and I read a bit longer until 10.00pm.

The guy behind us (the one with the NSW plates on his LandCruiser and Queensland plates on his van) was sounding a bit emotional watching the Women’s State of Origin, with cries of “come on ref” and “no, that’s a penalty”.

I don’t know who won the game, but I have a working assumption that some of the decisions didn’t go NSW’s way.

It was warm when we went to bed last night. The air was cool when I was walking back from my shower, but it was pretty toasty in Percy. So toasty in fact that I threw the blanket off when I finally headed off to the Land of Nod.

And that was the last thing I remember … until I woke up in the dark, shivering.

I think it was about 5.30am. Pitch black. Someone had pulled the blanket up. I don’t remember doing it, and MBW swears that it wasn’t her either … so either some elves came in during the night and shined everybody’s shoes and pulled up the blankets, or one of us did it.

I don’t believe the elf theory, and experience tells me that when MBW and I have a difference of opinion I am normally wrong anyway, so I’ll have to assume that I did it in my sleep.

But even with the blanket up, my feet still felt like two blocks of ice, so I did the right thing and pulled up the quilt also.

When I emerged from under the quilt a bit later, and long enough to check the temperature, it seems that it was about 13 degrees … which is unpleasantly cold when you are becoming accustomed to 33 degrees that feels like 37.

Not a huge incentive to get out of bed.

But get up I did, and I put on the little portable heater to generate some hot air.

What a shame the lady from Bitter Springs who came in on the Ghan and was having her surprise 50th birthday adventure even though she is now 52 wasn’t in the van with us. She was full of hot air.

My mother always used to say that “if you can’t think of something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

So forgive me. My comments about the Ghan lady were not nice. They were true, but still not nice.

Psst: If you want to get the scoop on the Ghan lady, read yesterday’s blog.

Elsie was still (mostly) hooked up from last night, so with our normal morning stuff done and dusted it was a pretty quick and effortless path to departure.

You’d expect that we could have been on the road by 7.30am or 8.00am, but no … it was closer to 9.15 before we pulled out and then we stopped at Mataranka to top up the fuel tank and pay Percy’s registration that is due tomorrow.

Like my mate Jack Reacher says, “Pay your bills when you have internet available”. Or something like that.

So it was closer to 10.00am before we actually got going in earnest.

As we were pulling out of the Bitter Springs Caravan Park, there were already people checking in, and a row of about 5 or 6 vans in convoy arrived and all pulled in together. Good luck getting space for all of you … we only freed up one spot when we departed.

We were heading south today.

We were really surprised at how many vans were travelling north. It was almost like everyone with a caravan is migrating north for the winter, which is probably not too far from the truth. I’m sure that if I checked more closely, they are probably all from NSW or Victoria where the weather is cold and miserable.

We needed to decide how to occupy our tiny minds today, and the choices were to do Country & Western karaoke, or count how many north-bound caravans we saw.

Given that neither of us even likes the sound of our own voices, we decided to count caravans. By the time we had made this important decision, we had probably already passed 40 vans, so that was our agreed starting point.

So how many north-bound vans did we see today? Ha! You will need to wait until the end of the blog for that important piece of information.

There is really nothing of note to report on our trip today.

We did almost 500km, and the temperature didn’t get over 21 or 22 degrees all day. I was in jeans all day because it was so cool.

We had a couple of leg stretch stops along the way.

Comfort stops. Lunch stops. Coffee stops, which then result in the need for more comfort stops. And some genuine “get out and stretch your legs” stops because driving for hour after hour is tiring.

We stopped at Elliot for lunch around 12.30 and topped off Elsie’s tanks again because fuel was cheap.

And when I say “cheap”, I mean that it was less eye-wateringly expensive than at other places where we have filled up. If I had my time over, I’d bring a 20 litre Jerry can of diesel with me … not so we can drive longer distances without stopping, but so that we can carry enough fuel to get us past the really expensive places and allow us to fill up at the less expensive places.

As it is, I often stop at an expensive fuel stop and put in just enough go go juice to get us to a less expensive fuel stop where I can fill up.

But that assumes that we get back to the Northern Territory again some time. And given MBW’s comment the other day that she has decided she prefers beach holidays to outback holidays, I’m guessing that we are likely destined for North Queensland holidays in future.

It’s not like the NT doesn’t have beaches, but the box jellyfish and the crocodiles make them seem less … appealing.

We heard some chatter on the radio yesterday about a van that hit a pothole just south of Elliot and rolled over. That’s not ideal, but apparently the road crew were already out today filling holes.

We had an interesting game of “dodge the potholes” ourselves today – we are back on the roads that had a great deal of flood damage, and the closer we get to the Barkly Highway (the one that takes us east into Queensland), the more potholes we see.

More roadworks, more “reduce speed” signs … although to be honest I would have to speed up to achieve the lower speeds that they require around roadworks.

We are quite happy to beetle along at about 95km/h, which seems to be a sweet spot that allows us to achieve best fuel economy while also not barrelling off the road and dying in a massive fireball.

Because we will be off the grid for a few nights now, we have filled Percy’s tanks, and that extra 200kg of water sitting on the tow hitch makes everything just that little bit more challenging to keep on the road at speed.

And it messes with Elsie’s fuel economy. About 22 litres/100km average today, which wouldn’t make the environmentalists very happy.

Actually, it doesn’t fill me with joy either, but you have to do what you have to do. I’ve said it before – if I wanted fuel economy I’d have bought a bicycle.

We have been looking for somewhere cheap to stay tonight … and when I say “cheap” I mean “free”. We really just need somewhere to crash (figuratively) at the end of a long drive, have dinner, sleep, and continue on our way.

We had a few options that gave consideration to how tired we would feel, and we finally decided on one called Churchill’s Head. It’s kinda in the middle of nowhere, in between nothing and Three Ways (the turnoff back to Queensland).

According to WikiCamps, we were to look for a signpost near a Telstra radio tower. We found that and followed the instructions past an enormous washout to the parking area at the top.

I don’t know how Evil Knievel would have felt about that hole, but I was feeling pretty terrified.

There was nobody else there … which was quite lucky because if another van had been there, it would have been impossible to manoeuvre our way back out again. It was a very small space. As it was it took about a 7 point turn to get around and out.

So we resorted to following Jolene’s directions and found ourselves on a different road, and then 5km further along – hey presto! – we found the space we were looking for.

We were a bit concerned about ensuring that there was at least another van nearby. I’m sure you have seen that movie (Wolf Creek?) about the nutcase who abducts and kills some travellers in the NT … and we don’t want to be the sequel.

And I have a feeling that was on the Stuart Highway too? Spooky.

Only one other van here when we arrived, but another 2 or 3 arrived after us. Plenty of space for everyone and not much road noise. And hopefully none of them are psychopathic serial killers.

And we didn’t need to unhook Elsie.

And it was free.

Hopefully we won’t freeze to death tonight, because the weather is definitely cooling down and the little portable heater wont work without 240V.

Tomorrow is just more of the same. Drive. Coffee. Comfort stop. Fuel up. Repeat.

We are about 100km from the turnoff back east to Queensland, so we will be looking for another freebie again tomorrow night. Last time on the Barkly Highway travelling east to west, we stayed at the Barkly Homestead which is about half-way. While that was quite nice, we are happy to stay off the grid somewhere when we are tired, and stay at no cost again.

I know that you are all beside yourselves wanting to know how many vans we passed today heading north.

And the answer is 216 vans heading north. Two hundred and sixteen.

And you will recall my previous comments about how everyone wants to wave at you as you go past each other? That’s a lot of waving.

A lot of being friendly.

I think I have developed a bad case of RWI – repetitive wave injury.

I tried to outsource the waving to MBW, but she wouldn’t have any of it. So it was up to me to wave.

We also saw a convoy of Army vehicles heading north. About 40-50 vehicles in all. Not sure if they were going somewhere, or going home from somewhere, but they didn’t seem to be any great hurry to get there.

And most of them waved too.

Time for coffee. I’m going to have to get the generator out so we have 240V for a short time, but it will be worth it.

Ciao

#Retirement2024

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