Day 27 – Mitchell Plateau, Drysdale Station, Mt Barnett, Mount Hart Station

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We managed to complete the 88ks to the Kalumburu Road with all 4 wheels and stopped in at Drysdale Station for fuel, lunch and a shower. Otto, the WWII fighter pilot, wouldn’t let Becs have a shower even if we paid for it as we hadn’t stayed there that night. She had one anyway.



Given it had taken us 5 hours to go the 160 odd ks to the Gibb River Road we felt reaching Wandjina NP that night was a stretch plus the unthinkable had happened. We’d run out of alcohol. This was potentially worse than the wheel falling off. No alcohol at Drysdale Station, none at Mt Barnett Road House, the only option looked like Mount Hart Station. It seemed to have a bar.



The Gibb River Road is not that bad and there is quite a bit of traffic. On the last trip I devised a system for dealing with fellow travellers. There seems to be some kind of ritual which involves you waving at every passing motorist. This can be a full on wave or us professionals tend to just raise a finger, but even then it becomes tiresome. I don’t wave at people on bitumen roads (what’s the point), I don’t wave at anyone towing anything (eg vanners and camper trailers) as they are scum just trying to ruin everyone’s holiday by driving slowly, I don’t wave at Britz or Apollo vehicles and I don’t wave at Police Cars (for obvious reasons). This takes a lot of the stress and effort out of travelling. Next time I’m going to get an automatic hand waver which you can pick up quite cheaply at ARB.



It was approaching dark as we were about to complete the 50ks from the Gibb River Road to Mt Hart Station. We got the tent up in record time and sprinted for the bar. They even had a TV so I asked the Dutch backpacker to put it on the league channel. She told me there were quite a few people watching the Royal Wedding. Unbelievable, I haven’t seen a TV since Darwin and now I have to sit through the Royal Wedding. The bloke from Victoria at the bar was indignant as well as he wanted to watch the AFL. Can’t really see the difference between that and the wedding anyway. Becs was already settling in with a bottle of Pinot Gris. Such is life!

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