We had to take extreme measures last night to try to keep
cool. We slept with the boot open as
well as all the windows. We felt secure
enough and it is quiet enough overnight to get away with it. Plus, the best benefit of the current
climate? It is TOO HOT for
mosquitoes! So bugs are not a problem
here. I still woke up feeling too hot a
few times, but it definitely made a difference having the extra flow of
air. The coolest part of the night was
when I briefly woke around 515am… and the sun was starting to come up to shine
some more heat down for us!
 |
| Here's an example of how hot it is here... this used to be a plastic pot of vitamin gummies which we mistakenly left in the glove box |
Due to the early nights we’re having we were both awake and
ready to hit the road at 835am. This was
a good thing as we had probably eight hours of driving ahead of us! The section of Western Australia between
Karratha and Broome is easy to drive through because there is not the usual
issue of worrying that you’re missing out on sites or tourist attractions. There is literally NOTHING to see or do
between the Cities, apart from the odd giant termite nest:
So, today seems a good time to mention some driving in
Australia etiquette that we were previously unaware of. It may be just something to do to kill the
time on long journeys? Or maybe Aussies really are concerned for each other and
want to check on everyone’s welfare?
Basically, we started on the busy roads of Perth but as we got further
north and traffic was more sparse, we started acknowledging other camper
drivers going the other way with a cheery wave, especially if they were
Travellers’ Autobahn (TA) cronies. But
then, we realised we were getting acknowledged by trucks, cars and then even the
massive road train drivers were giving us a salute. We didn’t want to be thought of as miserable
bastards by not getting involved (because that’s now what we call everyone who
doesn’t wave at us!). So, we devised a
system. If you have your hands at ten to
two on the steering wheel (like a proper driver) you can just lift a finger or
two in a cool nonchalant acknowledgement that hopefully they should see. This also means that if they don’t respond
and mug you off, at least you haven’t made a complete idiot of yourself by
giving them ‘full jazz hands’ (that is just reserved for the TA massive). We
discussed this with Johan and he disclosed that he tries to ‘draw’ (in a pistol
style) before the other driver. So, yet
another thing to fill our driving time with!
Add that to ‘eye spy’ and guessing whether the river coming up has any
water in it or not and the hours will fly by!
We are also employing ‘battleship tactics’ when it comes to
refuelling, meaning that we are stopping at practically every road house to
refuel, even if we are still over half fall.
Thankfully, they inform you how far it is to the next petrol station on
the road signs, so it’s not uncommon to see ‘Billabong Roadhouse 5km, next
services 291km’ so you can see why you have to stop most times. It is very sparse here (said the Queen of the
understatement!).
We needed to bag a free stop tonight as we were so far over
budget this week. We opted for the last
overnight rest area just short of Broome so that we wouldn’t have too much of a
drive in the morning. We pulled in to
the parking area a short while before sunset and there we were, the only souls
about.
Apart from trees full of
bee-eaters (left - as I had been promised in the reviews on our TA
App). I went for a wander with my
camera. The sky was full of these
smaller birds, parakeets and….. a hawk that swooped in and picked off one of the
bee-eaters right above my head! It was
amazing. The beauty and cruelty of
mother nature in its stark reality. (No, of course I didn’t manage to get it on
film despite having my camera in my hand…. I was too busy gawping).
Here, we seemed to have the heat but with the additional
issue of bugs meaning that we couldn’t leave the boot and door open
overnight. Instead, we tried the tactic
of running the engine so we could blast the camper with aircon until we were ready
to call it a night. It still felt too
hot to go to bed. It was a challenge to
lie without one off your limbs making contact with another one, let alone not
wanting to make contact with each other.
If only there was enough room on the camper for us both to starfish!
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