Thankfully, last night was not as cold as the night before, and we awoke this morning to what seemed like a positively balmy morning in comparison. This was a good thing and we decided to make an easy start of it, cooking up a raft of pancakes as a hearty breakfast to keep the hunger pangs at bay, before hitting the road.

Then, for the remainder of the day, we had nothing more than a long drive ahead of us. A long, possibly boring drive, with nothing apart from the tiny township of Glendambo and the even smaller outpost of Pimba, of which we weren’t planning to stop at either, between us and our next destination, another roadside rest area, that is to be the basis of our accommodation for this evening. In fact, an excerpt of my travel log reads only:

10:20AM: Leave camp

1:45PM: Arrive at camp

At least I had managed to research the rest area we are planning on camping at this evening, finding that it ought to be a spacious, well off the road, camped beneath the bushes type of camping ground. It looked promising on the map at least.

On The Road Again.

As expected, as beautiful as the scenery was, a mixture of oil painting like vistas alternating from sweeping plains across which you could see the curvature of the earth at the horizon, to brush and weed infested scrubland through which visibility was well and truly hampered, it was with a grossly saddened disposition with which we travelled today. For today will essentially mark the end of our out back touring, with our planned stop well within cooee of Port Augusta. From there on down, it will be almost suburban, with much smaller distances to cover between much larger towns. I even noticed that the waves from oncoming vehicles were becoming less common, the further we went. We made the most of it though, reveling in the glimpsing of gracious pods of Emus, their tiny heads bobbing up and down on elongated necks as they pecked their way across the desert plains, their spindly legs defying gravity in keeping their bulbous bodies aloft.

Local Wildlife.

While I might have related that we had a long drive today, it was only moderately so, covering only a touch over 300KM, which saw us pulling into our nominated rest area at the early hour of 1:45PM. We pulled in, to find a lovely flat stretch of coarse asphalt, a couple of bins and a miniature shade canopy which given the mild temperature today was somewhat optimistic. What was missing was the access to the shady bush land beyond the rest area. We could see the tracks, leading off through the dirt, meandering between the trees towards wide open camp spots, rock encircled fire pits, all just waiting for us to camp. The problem was, a sturdy looking fence amply delineating the official rest area from the unofficial, but much better, camping areas beyond. Up and down the rest stop did we walk, in the vain hope that a car sized gap may magically appear in the fence, kind of like platform 9¾ in the Harry Potter stories, but regardless of how hard we tried, there just id not seem to be any way of gaining access to the promised land.

It was only by chance, that as we peered and searched, Bec noticed a ute tearing down one of the trails. Following the spreading cloud of dust, we noticed that just outside the rest area was an almost concealed path, just wide enough for a car, leading off into the bush. We were indeed in luck. We thrust ‘The Beast’ through the growth, circling around into a prime spot. Perfectly level, plenty of space, we parked up, unpacked what we needed and called it quits for the day. With a well used fire pit right by the van, we decided to go foraging for more wood, having incinerated our entire supply last night, in the belief that a fire tonight may have been out of the question. We were regretting our decision now, as the ground about here has been well picked over for anything of notable size. That said, we were able to scavenge up enough that we ought to be able to enjoy a small blaze later on. Worn out from bouncing about in ‘The Beast’ and sourcing fuel for a fire, we plonked ourselves in our camp chairs to enjoy the final remnants of the sunshine, whence Bec turned into the campground Nazi, urging under her breath to all and sundry that even dared slow down, to keep on moving.

The Campground Nazi And Her Wood Pile.

The Dogs Have A Breather In The Fresh Air.

Enjoying A Final Outback Sunset.

As we sat, another few vans did pull in, a couple managing to figure out the secret access, to make their way in to join us, nearby, but not so close as to be annoying. Bec was disheartened regardless of having to share the bush. As we sat however, a couple came over to say G’day. Striking up a conversation with them, we found that they had grown up not far from where we live in Melbourne. They seemed nice and in deference to the scarcity of firewood, at Becs insistence I might add despite her earlier desire to keep the whole camping area to ourselves, invited them to join us after dinner for a flare up. We also made a round of the camping area, extending the same invitation to the other campers who had pulled in for the night.

With the logistics sorted, and the promise that more wood would be sourced, we retreated to the van for dinner, during which I issued Bec a stern warning that she was to behave around the fire if we were to have guests over, like that was ever going to stop her. With a bulging gut load of food, we headed out, enjoying the last vestiges of a tree shrouded sunset, before tossing a lit firestarter in amongst the pile of long dried tinder and twigs we had built up, to get the fire started.

Let’s Get This Party Started.

With flames quickly flickering to a generous height like a beacon, we were soon joined by another three couples. The first lady over, immediately pegged Bec, who was already joyously pitching an over abundance of logs onto the now blazing inferno, as being the pyro amongst us, while admitting to similar tendencies herself.

It was a fantastic way to spend our final night in the out back, enjoying the easy conversation, banter and a belly full of laughs that come of having the shared interest of camping out under the stars and travelling this great land of ours.

Until next time, have fun, stay safe and don’t forget to write.