Given that the road was open, the crews came through around midnight to take the sign away, today Chris and Stu were going to make their way over the crossing and up towards Bathurst Bay. Even though we had been across the crossing to collect fire wood the night before, we had to make sure that the road was open as your insurance is void if something goes wrong and you are on a closed road! We weren't sure if we would make it all the way, as we wanted to be back mid afternoon to prepare some damper for the evening. The boys and Katie were playing at home, catching up journal and postcard writing (expect a few shortly making their way south). Not bad considering we bought the first lot in Roma!
After a few checks at the ranger station re camps further down the schedule, the older boys were off. The first bit of the road before the Bathurst Bay turn off was pretty good, we thought it would be easy. It was after that, that it became a bit more tricky and justified the advice received that the 45km road takes about 1 hour and 50 minutes. There were numerous washouts along the way that required tracks around.
The advice we had from oncoming traffic was "if you stick to the right you should get through", well we took that advice and it made through a few obstacles. It was when the first big bog came up that we tried the third "right" track. Turns out we should have gone on the fifth track to the right, we didn't even look that far.
So we go about 20 metres into the bog and then came to a slow but sticky stop. Turns out that we would have been stuck regardless of the tyres, engine or anything, this stuff was like glue! Stu hopped out, ready to winch only to go more than ankle deep in the dark, sticky mud! Nearly lost his thong on more than one occasion getting to the other side of the bog to find a tree to winch from. On one occasion it claimed the thong and he had to go into retrieval mode, elbow deep to rescue it!
The bog after we had got through More bogged pictures coming.
As we got bogged, a kind fellow came driving through in the correct right hand track and asked if we were all good. By that stage we had the recovery gear out and were in the midst of recovery, so we waved him on. If only he had come moments earlier to show us the right way. Doh!
For the next hour we pulled and reset the recovery gear, skull dragging Charlie free of the mud. He was down to the axle at the rear and not far from it in the front. The winch did a great job at getting us out of trouble, it was good practice for the recoveries that we may have to do ahead in the trip up the telegraph track. By the time we finished the wheels resembled mud balls, little of the rim was visible ...
Somewhat exhausted but glad to have the car free we continued to journey towards Bathurst Bay, making sure we looked at EVERY track option before proceeding. The funny thing was meeting people up the track as we went, it must of have shocked them a bit with two white fellas getting out of a vehicle with black hands and feet, mud all but on the roof of the vehicle and when they asked what the track was like, our standard reply is "a bit boggy in places, keep to the right and you should be fine!" Several of them turned back after seeing us!
We didn't quite make it to the Bay but got to Bathurst Bay Outstation, a remote tin shed used by cattleman in the district for grazing cattle through the area. Really remote and somewhat looking disused! Blink and you would have missed it.
One thing that is amazing about this part of the country is the variety of vegetation. In a short stretch of road you can go from open gun tree savanna, through to think wooded areas and lush rainforest snuck in there for good measure. It is constantly changing depending on the landscape, soil types or location.
This sequence of photos is for a 200 metre stretch of road ...
As a final treat for the day, Chris cooked up some scones in the camp oven and we had them warm with a little butter with a cup of tea by the fire, what a way to end the day!
No comments:
Post a Comment