June 9th: Rest Day in Camooweal
Day 239
Our rest days always start with a monstrous breakfast. Eggs, bacon, coffee, toast, and fried tomatoes. We gathered some last-minute supplies and inventoried our water. From Camooweal to Mount Isa there is 188 km of nothing. One thing I should mention is that we pass a number of areas where streams are marked on the map but they are all dry. This is a desert. With the lovely cool weather it’s easy to forget but lack of water will kill you.
We are going to try to cross in 2 days but we are carrying 23 liters of water just in case. With the current temperatures, 26 Celsius during the day and around 7 or 8 at night it’s very pleasant fall weather and we only drink about 4 liters per day. Three days will be a bit of stretch as far as the water is concerned but it will be enough. Just in case we will start early and try to put in over a 100 km tomorrow, if the wind lets us.
23 liters of water
Planning for the future I began locating the next towns and noting their distances and types of grocery store. We didn’t do this at first and were lucky that we had enough oatmeal to cover a couple of lunches. We are now only about 1,120 km from Townsville, and we have traveled 1,380 km from Darwin to Camooweal, not including the extra 25 km to and from Tennant Creek. Breaking it down into these little chunks makes the distances easier to swallow.
We both agree that as long as we are fed and have the occasional shower the long distances aren’t so bad. We’re also learning to make ourselves at home, which is much easier when, on days like today, the bush flies are nowhere to be seen and we can lay in the grass or the tent with the doors open and read.
Our rest days always involve a little maintenance and we checked our tire pressure, added air, and oiled the chains. This kills that sneaking suspicion that something is low or rubbing when you’re pushing into the wind. I also made Cher a personalized Battlestar Galactica reflector, for her trike by the same name from some electrical tape and a cardboard road work sign I found in the rubbish bin, and Cher sewed some extra-large flags onto our old flags. We should be highly visible. I’ve begun to notice that we disappear into the landscape and are nothing more than tiny black dots and our improvements should help us not to become tiny black smudges.
