The original goal when we hit the road on
Sunday was to make it to Katherine but we had some time to play with before the
sun went down so we drove a little further and made our way to Mataranka. I was
glad we pushed on because as we were setting up our tent we were greeted by
kangaroos, wallabies, and even a couple of peacocks. One of the wallabies was
clearly used to being fed by humans and lingered around our site for about half
an hour before realizing we weren’t going to give him any food and finally
wandering away.
This campsite was relatively peaceful aside
from some cockatoos during daylight and some bats after dusk. We puttered
around most of the evening and chatted for a while with an older couple from
Western Australia who visit the Northern Territory several times a year.
In the morning we had a quick bite to eat
and wandered down to the nearby thermal pool to take a dip. I was expecting the
pools to stink of sulphur the way any of the hot springs I’ve been to in the
past have but these ones didn’t smell too bad. Feeling refreshed we headed back
to tear down the campsite and pack up the car. Jesse considered doing some
fishing in a nearby river hoping to catch some barramundi but decided to give
it a miss and we hit the road.
Our goal for the day was to make it to
Tennant Creek about 580km away. We should have been able to make it there no
problems. Well I guess I got a little too cocky because about 60km outside of
town the shit hit the fan. We ran out of gas. I knew this was going to happen
and we had two jerry cans full of gas on the roof so when the fuel light came
on in Jesse’s car I suggested we pull over at the next rest stop and top up the
tank. Jesse thought it would be a better idea to let the tank empty completely
before stopping. This plan didn’t work out so well because the car wouldn’t
start again even though it now had half a tank of gas. It was 37 degrees out,
we were 60km away from town, and I desperately needed to use the bathroom.
I
was not a happy camper. It took at least half an hour to get the engine started
and you would think that our problems would end there but they didn’t. Jesse
lifted up the tailgate and accidently smashed the back window of the canopy.
There was broken glass everywhere and nothing to keep all of our belongings
from flying out of the back of the truck as we drove on. I also still
desperately need to use the bathroom. It took what felt like forever and a day
but was probably more like 45 minutes to clear out most of the gas, secure our
stuff temporarily and move on.
The rest of the drive to Tennant Creek was
a quiet one as was most of the night. We were both stressed, exhausted, and
crank from the day we had and today didn’t start off much better. We tried to
find a way to secure our belongings that would also allow us to access the back
of the truck since that is where all of our camping gear is stored but didn’t
have much luck. We spent about 4 hours trying to make something work and
eventually ended up with a temporary windshield duct taped to the back of the
truck with a tarp over that and then a bunch of rope running up and down as
sort of a last ditch effort in case the other two barriers fail. Getting into
the back of the truck will now require significant time and effort.
The good news is we did manage to make it
to Alice Springs today but I am far too tired to write about those adventures
now so I will leave them for another time.
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