In the morning I was joined by a couple of
kangaroos who must have realized that I was waking up and so they hopped away before I
could really enjoy their presence. I decided to be a bit nicer to the car and crossed the
river to a paved road; or at least so the map said. Instead I was confronted with another
(better) dirt road and a "100" speed limit sign. I am sure it was not meant for
me; I cruised along at maybe 40 making frequent stops for pictures. On this trip - planned
was Tilpa to Bourke, 200km - I got to see many more Emus and Kangaroos, and again the
occasional dingo. I also happened to see whole two cars.
Just when I was maybe 30km
away from Bourke, the road was flooded. I had to cross through a flooded road already half
an hour before, after I made sure the water was not too deep for this car. However, this
second flood was definitely too deep and there was no way around it. All I could do was to
turn around and backtrack. A brief look at the map told me that I was in troubles - with
all the detours imposed on me yesterday and today, I was low on gas, and this most recent
detour would add some 200 unexpected km onto the counter - kilometers I potentially didn't
have the gas for. So I switched to even softer style and headed straight - well, as
straight as the roads would allow - for Bourke. If I had to get stranded, then better
still during the day with hopefully some car driving by. Traffic signs showing one and the
same destination into completely different directions were not very helpful either.
I made it to Bourke on an empty gas tank and without sighting a single car. I filled up
the car, the windshield washer, my water tank and bought some eggs as I felt like having
some for dinner. After this I headed north towards Queensland, some 100km away. I pulled
into the first branching road and found a great campsite. However, I didn't have any eggs
for dinner - my stove gave up its ghost, permanently as it seems, after three years of
service. As a matter of fact, since all food I had with me was to be cooked, I had some
raw spaghetti for dinner - things must get pretty desperate, huh. Looks like I will have
to change my diet and also my food reserves. Another major nuisance are the flies here -
makes me wonder whether things will always stay as bad (or even get worse): I put on long
pants and a sweatshirt, even put a towel over my head, in a quite futile attempt to keep
the beasts off.
Seems like I picked the right
order of things, though: first head to the desert, admittedly a bit too much, and then
north - in the meantime, Cyclone Justin has devastated half the Queensland coast, or so it
sounds on the radio. Now I am ready to leave the beginnings of the Outback and to head
back to greener pastures.