8th August - Bush camp 50kms inside WA border, 252kms today, 4994 kms to date

Sunrise on our first bush camp near the Granite mine. As we went to bed as soon as it got dark at 6.30pm last night we were up with the larks at first light (7am). Breakfast was Colin’s choice, Apricot Crumble???. Not bad. We eventually got packed up and off at 9.30m. Trying to fit a quart into a pint pot (Expedia airbed) is not my forte. I set up my video camera on my helmet to take some action shots as we rode down the road only to find out I had forgotten to turn it on!!!!

We stopped for a break near the Granite mine which is owned by Newmount. Here Alan is enjoying a cheap not so exciting muesli bar from Coles. There was good mobile reception so we called Billiluna to check on the fuel situation for Saturday. They recommended going to Balgo which had a credit card fuel pump which operated all the time.  It also had an Art Gallery and Colin hoped to find something there instead of Yuendumu.

This is Colin posing as usual. I offered to take his photo as he is always behind the camera. I think he should stay there!!!! The road wasn’t too bad up to the disused Tanami mine. After that and the closer we got to the WA border it deteriorated with quite a few badly chopped up corners so you danced across the road having to hang on to the bike with the power still on. Real sphincter tightening stuff.
Lunch was taken about 30kms short of the WA border. No, I am not relieving myself,  I am enjoying my camp stool while watching the billy boil (must be a song in that??) Colin is madly jealous as he hasn’t got a stool and has to stand around like the proverbial. Perhaps he can get one in Halls Creek.

This is an example of the sort of surface we rode on today. Nice and sandy on the side and crushed gravel in the middle which is really good until the sandy bit covers the whole road.  We  setup camp about 50kms past the WA border. We had few problems finding an area with not too much Spinifex and not too hard for the tent pegs. We found one under a tree and cleared the Spinifex.

About an hour later when we were partaking of our evening repast, this nice grader man David, a full blood Aboriginal, came down the road with his big grader and asked if we wanted him to clear the area round the tree.

Grader makes our own personal road back to the Tanami

Because we had already done the job Colin asked  (jokingly) if he could clear a track to the road from our campsite which he did obligingly. We invited him to have a cup of tea but he declined as he had to get the grader down the road before the light failed.
By the way I flogged Colin at Gin Rummy after sunset so all is right with the world. (Colin did the reverse the night before)