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Published: September 6th 2009
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Day 131 - Banka Banka to Daly Waters
Waking up early is easy when the birds start the dawn chorus, being bothered to get out of bed is a whole other story but we did manage to crawl out just after 7! The showers were wet and warm and after packing up we were on the road again by 8.30. We could hear the Daly Waters pub swimming pool calling us!
Today’s trip was only 4 hours, nice and easy does it! There was little traffic on the Stuart Highway but we waved to anything on coming just for something to do! Darryl was videoing some of the route and happened to say how good it would be to see an eagle or any living wildlife and then flying along side us was a Little Eagle. Well, we think it was a Little Eagle but we’re not 100% sure!! The debate between it being a Little Eagle, a Whistling Kite or a Wedge Tail continues!
We did see a chap on a rather small bike in the middle of nowhere so we hope he's raising lots of money for charity or else he's lost it just a little
bit!
Daly Waters is an outback town where Amy Johnson once landed on her incredible flight from England to Australia in the 1930s. We’re under the guidance of Tom Tom today, shouldn’t be much of a challenge as we’ve been on a straight road since leaving Alice Springs! However, it gets confused between the historic WWII hanger and the historic pub so we end up at the hanger initially with Dar crying over the pint he now hasn’t got! I have a quick scout around the hanger while Dar puts some fuel in from one of the jerry cans.
The historic pub is the main feature of the town these days and it’s well known for the collection of memorabilia including the thong tree and various garments hanging from the beams in the main bar!
It doesn’t take us long to find our way there and because we already know the food here also has a big reputation, we put our names down for the ½ and ½ Barra n Beef BBQ later in the day. It’s $20 a night for a powered site which is great value considering there’s a pool here and we’re in the
middle of absolutely no-where!
To make sure we get value for money we head straight for the cooling waters of Daly Waters! It was definitely a good idea and we felt very relaxed in no time at all. Have we mentioned that the heat has been turned up for the second day in a row and the temperature is well in the 30s!
We made two pool visits, during the second we were joined by a family who have been on the road for 8 months but coming the opposite way round from us so we swap travel experiences and blog addresses. Their address is
Ashleys round Australia . As they’ve been to all the places we’re heading they suggest us checking it out for some ideas, thanks for that guys we will do. They’re working at the pub for a few days which is giving their older kids the opportunity to earn some cash and the younger ones the opportunity to play in the pool! A win-win situation!
The pool table catches our eye and we hope to get back to the bar in time for a game but there are specific rules which you have to abide by.
If you hit the light over the table you must donate a $1 to the local charity, if you drop your queue you must donate a $1 to the local charity and if you lose by 7 balls then you have to donate your undies to the bar!!! Maybe we won’t play after all as Darryl is ‘going commando’!
The amenities here are great, they’re individual corrugated tin huts around the outside of the campsite each containing a toilet, sink and shower, excellent stuff and they were lovely and clean so I made use of them for an afternoon freshen up before dinner!
Happy hour starts at 4.30 where you get to play ‘Toss the boss’ for free drinks. You order what you want and then guess heads or tails. If you call it right your drinks are free, if you call it wrong then you pay the normal price. We order a pint and a half of Tooheys New and Darryl calls ‘heads’, he’s right so the drinks are free - brilliant, we like this game!
We sit down enjoying the atmosphere gazing round at all the memorabilia. We’re joined by another couple, Joyce and Pat,
who are on an 18 month trip out of Perth. The rear of their caravan caught my eye earlier because they’ve used the slogan ‘Adventure before Dementia’, I don’t think either of them are suffering from signs of that as yet! They’ve got their dog Kosta travelling with them and we watched Pat cooling him down under the sprinklers earlier in the afternoon, he loved it!
Round two of ‘Toss the boss’ and Darryl has a theory he wants to try out so I send him up to test his luck again. He calls ‘heads’ again and scores! Good on ya! Fair Dinkem, another free round! Joyce and Pat weren’t quite so lucky and had to pay for theirs, never mind. Joyce is also blogging their trip as they go, she even has the governor of WA logging in to read it! Impressive! Their address is
Adventure before Dementia with Joyce and Pat It’s time for our tucker so we go off to sit in the BBQ area and we’re astounded by the size of the meals, wowie! All that for one person! The salad and damper is gorgeous too and we tuck in loving every bite.
We’re joined again by Joyce and
Pat and sit enjoying a great, relaxed evening in the cool breeze. There’s no organised entertainment tonight as the regular Daly Waters man has left for the season but instead we have an impromptu performance from a collection of musicians from Queensland. Tony starts off with some Johnny Cash renditions and then moves on to the Animals ‘House of the Rising Sun’ so everyone has a bit of a sing-a-long and it’s great! Then Fred gets on the mouth organ and just blows us all away, it was fantastic and then Malc who normally plays electric guitar does some accompaniment on the acoustic guitar and we all tap along.
What a great night and everyone went to bed fed, watered and happy.
Excellent
Dar and Sar
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