May 15 to 19
May 15 to 19
It was a disappointed crew that boarded the bus this morning to erase the hard won kilometres of the past three days as we travelled the bumpy Birdsville Track back to Marree and on to Lyndhurst where we would spend the night. Today would be 279 kilometres of rough, rattling, bus beating roadway with a fine dust that seemed to leak into the bus through every crack or opening. The experience is much like driving down the railroad track on the ties with dust for dessert. The rear door alarm was the first casualty followed by the exhaust system coming apart. Our electrician rider, Paul snipped the necessary wire to silence the first while Ralph and Andy fished a strap around the exhaust pipe to hold it nearly in place. The cover plate that rattled off the floor was only a minor annoyance. Dinner was a fine affair at the Lyndhurst Hotel with plenty of cold beer and wine to cut away the dust of the day. Camping that night was in an area that revealed itself to be a kangaroo toilet when the sun came up. Ah, the good life!
The next four days were more of the same. More dust, more bone rattling, bus breaking, corrugated dirt roads and no air conditioning. The latter would not have been too bad except that the ever present dust made it a choice between choking or sweating. We chose sweating. Even with the windows closed we were still getting exhaust fumes from time to time so when we stopped at Innamincka for the night I volunteered to crawl under the bus for a little Canadian backwoods exhaust repair. Two soup cans, a few hose clamps, some wire, muffler tape and finger cuts later we had a continuous flow of engine exhaust from headers to tailpipe, mostly and good enough.
In a land where roads are scarce, detours can be epic. Mungerannie to Birdsville. What would have been a four day, 309 kilometre ride on a bicycle turned into a 1230 kilometre bus ride from Purgatory. The Chuck Berry rendition of Shake, Rattle and Roll seemed to be ever present in my mind. There were some interesting things along the way to make the journey less harsh than I may have implied.
First of these was the fellowship of the road. Between nowhere and anywhere lives somewhere, where, as it happens, you happen to be. When you look around and take inventory you find that good travelling companions help to make any experience enjoyable. If we were not team of jolly companions before the ride we were one at the end. All pitched in to make this long and dusty detour one that was lighthearted and endurable.
Another was a visit to the Dig Tree, site of one of Australia’s most tragic and ironic events. Wills and Burke were two explorers who took up a challenge to cross Australia from south to north. It is a story of mistakes, confusion and ironic missed meetings leading to the deaths of both Burke and Wills at Cooper Creek in 1861. On the way north the expedition divided with a party left behind at a stockade they built at Camp 65 near Cooper’s Creek. As Burke, Wills, King and Charles Gray rushed north to the gulf, William Brahe was left at Camp 65 along with abundant supplies and instructions to wait at least three months or four if possible for the other party to return.
Burke, Wills and King made it to the gulf by February and headed back towards Camp 65. Charles Gray died on the return trip. However the journey took longer than expected and after waiting more than four months for Burke and wills to return, Brahe abandoned Camp 65. before leaving he burried a large cache of supplies a few feet from a large coolabah tree and carved the instruction, “Dig” into the bark. A few hours later that same day Burke and Wills returned to Camp 65 just missing Brahe and his party. They found the Dig Tree and the supplies and not knowing they just missed Brahe decided to make their way west to Blanchwater Station near Mount Hopeless.
Meanwhile, Brahe met up with Wright and his party of explorers and made the decision to head back to Camp 65 to look for Burke and Wills. Upon reaching the camp and finding no trace that Burke and Wills had been there they decided to go back by the southern route. Why they did not check to see if anyone had dug up the cache of supplies remains a mystery. Burke and Wills ran out of water before reaching Mount Hopeless and dies an ironic death in the Outback a victim of misadventure, miscommunication and just plain bad luck.
Aside for the beauty of the desert there were some things to see. The huge gas extraction plant at Moomba, Deon’s Lookout, The Dreamtime Snake along with the occasional flood plain as we neared Birdsville. It was one of these floodways that finally get the better of our cheerful and enduring driver Andy. Just a few klicks from our destination a minor misjudgment resulted in a major miring in the sticky red clay of a previously flooded porting of the road. A bit of digging, a tow strap and a good Samaritan with a strong four wheel drive got us back on to firm road and the last bit into Birdsville. Some of us kissed the pavement.
Later, once the tents were unpacked, the road dust washed away and a few moments taken to do some laundry, it was time to visit the Birdsville Hotel. Due to the many days without road access, supplies were limited and I had to settle for bottled beer. Oh, the humanity! Dinner tonight was a treat by Ralph and I had my first taste of kangaroo. It almost hops into your mouth!
Tomorrow I will spend my time getting the photos and blogs of the past nine days in order and on line so there will be no post for May 20th. May 21st, we are back on two wheels and off for the coast.