Camooweal

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After being towed 120km to Camooweal on the evening of Friday 19 October (the credit card will be recovering for some time!), we spent the weekend sitting it out at one of the caravan parks, waiting for the mechanic to have a look at the van on Monday morning. Unfortunately, when he dropped us off at the caravan park, he placed our van next to the ‘dump point’ so all we could smell for a couple of days was poo! Not classy. When we changed over from the van to the tent on Sunday evening, we made sure we were far enough away from the dump point!



On Monday morning it transpired that we needed some new van parts which would come from Sydney. Obviously delivery wasn’t going to happen overnight but the delays that followed were beyond a joke. First Pickerings didn’t post the parts (still haven’t heard a good thing about them); then they sat around in their Townsville depot for days; then the post office didn’t scan the package’s bar code so we had no idea where it was; then it turned out that Pickerings hadn’t posted all the requested parts so we had to wait for the rest to be sent separately; and then the newly assembled setup didn’t work properly and overheated too much.



It would probably have been easier if we had been prepared for how long we would have to wait, but each day we thought we would be able to leave the following day, so it became a never-ending sinus wave of hope and disappointment.



Today is the day we actually get to continue our journey. Yesterday, Dean took the initiative to download the manufacturer’s instruction manual for our van so that the mechanic could have another go at putting the parts together. This time it worked and the differential is only heating up to a temperature of 120^oC. That still sounds pretty hot to me but apparently it’s ok. We may need to do some work and replace some parts when we take a break to work, but for now we’re good to go :-)



We’re just one day short of having spent three weeks in Camooweal! That’s longer than we spent travelling around the whole of Tasmania! It even got to the point where we considered that there might be a conspiracy going on, keeping us in town to boost the economy. After all, we’re the only tourists that stopped for more than one night. Some backpackers that also broke down came up with the same theory. One couple had to buy a new car and the others are still waiting to leave.



The town of Camooweal isn’t exactly the kind of place you would choose to be stuck for any length of time. With a population of 310, it consists of 10 streets, a police station, a petrol station, a pub, a couple of caravan parks and a post office. The post office carries extra significance as that’s where you do your grocery shopping.



By day 10 I had run out of my staples – nuts, raisins, tahini and non-dairy milk and chocolate. It’s not like you can buy those kinds of things in Camooweal. But then I found out that you can ask the post office / supermarket staff to get them for you when they do their daily (188km!) drive into Mount Isa to get supplies. They couldn’t find any decent chocolate though, so some lovely fellow travelers from Melbourne generously shared their supply with me. That was on day 14, after Dean bought a bottle of Shiraz to help restore my sanity.



Eventually we started to feel like locals and made Camooweal our second home. The vast majority of the locals are Aboriginal and everyone is very friendly here. Within no time, everyone knew us or knew of us. We became good friends with the caravan park’s grounds keeper. I think he enjoyed our company as much we enjoyed his.



We still thank our lucky stars that our caravan park had a small, deliciously cold pool. With temperatures between 35^oC and 50^oC (the tar seal on the road started melting at one point!), we needed some regular cooling-off sessions. We also spent a fair amount of time in the air-conditioned pub, which the caravan park is part of. It’s practically the town’s community hall and church rolled into one. We were told that, unlike in nearby Tennant Creek, there was no need to worry about theft at our caravan park as the owners have more authority than the local police! They were the sweetest and even offered us dinner on the house on my birthday.



Whilst Dean spent most of his time in the pub, I practically lived in the camp kitchen where I studied lots. I’ve now finished the Anatomy & Physiology module (exam still to go) and am well into the Chemistry module. We also watched a zillion episodes of Supernatural and, at the risk of sounding like a lust-struck teenager, I think I’m in love with those Supernatural boys!



We sure met some strange folk on their way through Camooweal. As the ‘resident travelers’, we met lots of people who passed through for just a night. There was the old drinking & smoking lady who took a shining to Dean and followed him around, the big kiwi chap who tried to restrain his travelling cat in the middle of the night (in the nude!), the funky Canadian that kept throwing his hands in the air and talking to himself, the overzealous loud French chick who liked to store her tobacco in the communal fridge and wanted to throw her laundry in with ours, and the lovely German couple from Hamburg that restored my faith in the existence of normal people! Other things I definitely won’t forget are the two frogs that flushed out from under the toilet seat and the gecko that fell on me in the shower :-)



The people in the house adjacent to the caravan park loved to party 24/7 so we had heaps of live entertainment. And then the pub hosted the town’s annual Christmas party, for which the staff of all the area’s cattle stations came into town. On day 18, we got to celebrate the Melbourne Cup – ironically we probably wouldn’t have bothered doing so in Melbourne! As soon as I woke up that morning, I decided it was going to be a ‘doona day’, so when I saw that there was a horse whose name sounded very similar, I insisted we place a bet on it. Unfortunately we lost our bet on Dunaden, but it was fun anyway.



Whilst mostly being confined to the campground, we enjoyed some outings too. We cycled to some billabongs just outside of town and on day 13 one of the pub owners took pity on us and lent us her car. It felt fantastic to get out and about so we drove to the Camooweal Cave National Park to see the Nowranie Caves. The locals didn’t sugar-coat it for us and prepared us for the fact that they were simply holes in the ground. They were just that, but Great Nowranie Cave was impressive to look at even if we couldn’t climb down and walk into it.



So today we will cross the border into the Northern Territory and spend the night in Barkly Homestead. The following day we’ll continue to Tennant Creek. At the weekend we’ll make our way to Alice Springs where I look forward to a ‘second birthday’ with some proper pampering!



We will remember Camooweal with fondness, and I am sure we will miss the people and the lovely pool, but it really is time to continue travelling and we’ll happily wave goodbye.

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