Up and out would have been easy this but for the usual gang of postie bike admirers. It's astonishing just how interested people are in the little bike and the fact that I live off it. What I carry is all I have but everybody gets it even if they don't do it quite as I do.
One bloke told me he'd left Melbourne with us wife for the weekend - 6.5 years ago. They loved being on the road so much that they've just kept going but have progressed from a tent to a caravan and now a rooftop tent which they bought at the weekend. They're on their way to Broome and gave me some useful unfo re camping in WA.
I stopped at the servo in Burra for water and spare fuel to get me up the dirt track from Yunta to see the dog fence, and met Bruce. What a nice bloke! And after the usual bike and travel chat, he invited me back to his house for coffee and shower. How terrible does that sound? But it was so welcome. His wife Coralie didn't seem at all surprised at my appearance and after my shower, I spent a good hour drinking their coffee, eating their cake and chatting about all sorts; their daughter who is a nurse in Saudi, their trip to Europe, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and their relocation to Burra just a few months ago in preparation for Bruce's retirement. Really good people and it was an absolute pleasure to meet them.
After leaving them, I stayed on highway to cover some kms then filled up in Yunta as bottom of dirt road to Arkaroola. Locals said if was good dirt not too sandy, but with no fuel of water stops and only a couple of homesteads. So I told them where I was going, assured them I was properly prepared, watched the news with a couple of truckies then set off.
I wanted to get started incase I chickened out so I rode about 20 kms up it before finding a good feral camp spot on a hill.
It was very dark out there, overcast and a bit stuffy. There was a very light sprinkling of rain as I was setting up I could see and smell it falling a way off. That was one reason for getting up high as flash floods do happen and without warning. Drowning in the arid outback is not one of my ambitions.
But with the rain came rumbles of thunder and a few flashes if light, again a way off. So I got me and bike away from tree and then me away from bike just incase. Being zapped into oblivion is not on my list either
I was all alone out there except for a plague of flies that arrived all at once. Hundreds of the bloody things. Thank god for my head net. But then as darkness fell, they all cleared off - together. They were there then they weren't. Bizarre. Where did they go?
I sat watching sunset; so peaceful. I bloody love the outback. The endless scrub and its seemingly bland colours has it's own beauty and lure. So many greens and greys, so many browns and so many tiny creatures all doing what they do, under the scorching sun.
Dark now and not a light visible at all. Not one. Gentle warm breeze, crickets, and me in my swag, just under the netting. No stars though - too dark.
What this a out the desert being cold at night? It was frigging roasting out here and even the gentle breeze of earlier dropped. Strewth. Mind you, according to Mr Apple, it's -36 in the Gobi, so im glad I'm here and not there. I have both roasted and frozen inonglia on previous trips, and that is more than enough.
The sunrise was beautiful. And it brought the gentle breeze back as well as those bloody flies. Get the hard stuff done before it gets too hot. Been here 13 hours now. I car in distance. Amazing isolation.
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