What an adventure our trip has been so far!
As you would expect, there have been good bits, bad bits, and everything in-between. I'll do my best to do it justice and I hope that you will be able to imagine it just as we experienced it.
We bought a bus, a 2006 Toyota Coaster that is now one of the family and has acquired the name "Trevor", only four days before leaving Perth and heading North on our journey 'over the top'. During that time Perth was rainy, miserable, and very very cold. By the time we left we weren't so elated but rather exhausted from working non-stop for the better part of a week and solving every little problem and unexpected inconvenience as it arose. We didn't have solar to charge our battery which would last us around only three days. We did have running water at that stage, but only 25Ltrs per 'tank' which would last us around three days as well.
By the time we hooked up the big 90Ltr water tank we started to have issues with the pump sucking in air and eventually not being able to fill the tank nearly at all. By the time we got halfway through the Northern Territory we were back on the 25Ltr tanks again... Plumbing's hard.
As far as the drive and scenery goes a lot of the West Coast we had covered before, so we set a heading straight up to Gladstone Bay Campspot where we were able to rinse off under a lukewarm shower out of a tin can with holes punched in it. The sky was wide and bright above us and the beach only a few short steps away. Apparently the shower water there is only warm because the sun heats the pipes during the day, so at night I imagine it'd be much cooler.
We then stopped at Bush Bay station stay where the tides are so extreme that the water swallows up the camp spots closest to the water's edge. It was so nice staying here because the pups had been in the bus for a few days and had started to drive us nuts with the long stretches of road. We let them out and they had great fun running wild amongst the scrub! There was a small inland stream not too far away and they would leap over low bushes and crash into the water. They started hiding behind scrub too and creeping up on each other before running off again in another direction. They did this for more than an hour without rest and it was the most heart warming sight.
The next day we did a looooong drive up into the Pilbara. It's so interesting to see this part of Australia. From the highway I wouldn't say that it was beautiful in the slightest, but it is incredible to witness. For hours and hours all you pass on the highway are haul trucks and mining vehicles. The road is stained red in some directions and grey in the other depending on whether the trucks are loaded or empty. Even though there is a haul truck every 30 seconds or so the earth they're mining out there is mostly transported by rail that goes directly from each site.
We found an old exploration trail that led in behind some red craggy hills with the occasional ghost gum that grew out of cracks in the earth, and there were balls of spiky spinifex that stab at your ankles if you pass too close. Dylan reckons they would've cleared that road to those hills so that they could bring all their machinery in, drill a big hole, test the rock for iron-ore density, and then if the percentage was too low they would've just left the road there and wouldn't return to mine that site.
It was so peaceful out there and the stars were magnificent. We had a bonfire next to the bus and cooked dhal in the camp oven with damper mixed with fennel seeds on a stick. Dylan was exhausted from driving so had an early night with Alby, while Wally curled up on a camp chair beside me and listened to me play guitar by the fireside. Even though it was just tucked off the highway, it was a really magical evening. There's something about being out there in the middle of nowhere, under the stars, by the fire, and knowing that no one else is going to roll in... probably ever.
I can't tell this story without telling the whole truth... we've been pooping out in nature as you do in these nature camps, and having dhal the night before, my god, it was an emergency in the morning. I ran off the bus clenching my cheeks, tried to contain the dogs whilst searching for some TP, climbed off the bus leaving the dogs behind (thank god), waddled a few far too short paces away from the bus and evacuated my entire anus onto the Pilbara without any time to dig a hole... why does this happen to me! Luckily there were a few embers from last night's fire that I could burn the toilet paper, but the best I could do with my seemingly undigested dhal was to cover it as best I could with a pile of rocks. Satisfied with my efforts I climbed back into bed as though nothing had happened. A half hour later we were up and making coffee in the Jetboil. We opened the bus door and let the pups roam and find their own stealthy places to relieve themselves. They never really wander too far so we don't have to worry about them when we're in such remote camps. We packed away the camp chairs from the night before and cleaned the camp oven to store in the boot. At some point the pups came back from their little adventure with an unmistakable stench of human poo. Wally looked up at us guilty as sin, Alby proud as punch with a dhal coloured stain smeared down his chin... we peeped around the corner of the bus and there, where my neat little stack of rocks had previously lived were two little snout prints embedded in the steaming mass. We've certainly reached a whole new level of closeness... kill me now!
That's all for now, speak to you again when we're somewhere new.
Tate x
