Little River

On Monday afternoon, the 28th of June I arrived about 4pm, which is late in this lifestyle, at the Little River Free Camp following a stressful day on bad gravel roads, cleaning up a cordial and dust mixed mess in a filled cupboard and floor, dealing with Telstra, paying bills now that I had service, finding a broken latch on the shower door and failing to pay for fuel. So I pulled in to the free camp and there was room for me. There were some lovely people there who waived as soon as I drove in. I quickly worked out where I needed to park and did so.

As it was already late afternoon I did not worry about much set up and went over and said hello to my friendly neighbours. They were very welcoming just as they were when I drove in. I really appreciated their attitude as I was travelling on my own. The lady from Robinson River and their friends were just like that. This has been a real lesson to me, ie, to be friendly and welcoming to those travelling on their own. More than that, it was a case of one particular person waiving the welcoming hand and speaking up more than the rest so that you knew you were welcome to come and say hello. I am comfortable with travelling on my own but I am a social person and do like some company now and again so I appreciated them and learnt this lesson well.

Whilst I was running the water in the van the 12 volt draw on the batteries caused the lights to flicker which indicated the batteries were not fully charged which they should have been after a days driving charging the batteries. The night before I found it was happening as well but owing to a late finish that night as well I did not spend time investigating it. So I had a look at the two house batteries and saw that a wire had disconnected. I also found a wire had disconnected from a fuse. Two of the guys from my friendly neighbours came and had a look. Fortunately one of them had spare wire and one had a joiner so these awesome guys set to work and reconnected the wiring. I crimped the wire back into the fuse and I was confident that the problem was fixed, as indeed, it later proved to be the case. This issue was another result of travelling on the rough gravel road.

It was a pleasant night chatting to my new neighbours around their campfire. They offered their hotplate for me to BBQ my dinner but I had something else sorted out for the night. So I had dinner and joined them at the campfire again. It was a good time.

The next stage of my trip involved travelling along the Savannah Way to the Southern Lost City, Butterfly Falls and Lorella Springs. It was more rough gravel so I had decided to put the van in storage and take my tent and air bed and camp without the van. The possibility that I might find this necessary was evident to me when I planned the trip so I came prepared. I reckon the van could handle the road as it is a well built van, but I couldn’t, meaning that I could not handle risking damage to the van on that road. So the next day I worked out what I needed to do to put the van in storage and load whatever was needed and not needed in and out of the Landcruiser. I pulled the BBQ out of the vehicle as I would only be using the gas cooker. I also took the second spare Landcruiser wheel and tyre off the back of the van an secured it in the vehicle. Then it was a case of packing a few boxes with food, cutlery, pot, kettle, washing items, clothes etc. Linda had cooked, packed and frozen a bunch of chicken stoganoffs and Thai Green curries before I left home for such a time as this. The idea was to have them for when I was in remote spots with no butchers. It would make my cooking easy by just heating up a nice dish in a pot, job done. My problem was that I only had a soft bag cooler and not a proper desky. I did not bring one as they are so bulky. I didn’t bring the fridge/freezer on this trip as I have driven on corrugated roads with it before and I hear the condenser rattling like crazy so I figured it would have got wrecked. It had been in the back of my mind that I might need a proper esky but I had decided to wing it. But I now realized that I would not get by without a reasonable esky rather than a soft cooler bag.

So I spent that day getting organized, ie vehicle and van, for the trip on the Savannah Way. I also had put my pots in to the water overnight and through the day to try and catch some cherubim or red claw but caught nothing other than some small catfish and a crab. I also enjoyed the company of the neighbours for a few chats and happy hour. They also offered their hotplate for me to cook on and I did so with my beautiful rump steak. After a stressful day the day before this was a good day to relax and get organized, take a breath and get ready for my next adventure.

I got an early start the next morning and headed to Cape Crawford which was 10km away. Straight after turning onto the highway and travelling a hundred metres a dingo crossed the road running away from the river. This dingo had no doubt been hanging around our camp to pick up scraps. I am glad I had been putting my boots inside. I did this on purpose as dingoes and wild dogs like taking a leather boot and chewing on it.

I went on to Cape Crawford where I topped up with fuel. I organized with the staff to put the van in storage which was $10 a night, which was actually the same price for one person to camp unpowered. A bit steep for storage really. I asked one of the staff if they sold eskys which they did not. So then I asked if they might have a foam broccoli box that I could borrow and use as an esky. The helpful lady went to the storage room and came back with a broccoli foam box. Happy days! But then do they have ice? No, none left. But the truck with supplies was overdue and it might have ice. The truck was due at 8am and it was 8.30am. OK I grabbed the foam box and drove the van into storage and set the van up for that purpose to leave it. I did the final sorting out of gear in and out of the van and headed over to see if the truck had arrived? Yes it had arrived and I found out it had ice. But it still had to get unloaded and that could not be hurried. So after about 20 minutes of waiting I had my ice and I had my esky. Wow, happy days! I then loaded my cold and frozen items into the esky and I was off. Onto my next adventure.