That red dust taste.....

Today we arose again in pitch black darkness to "Mummy, can I come into your bed" 20 times before we give in and Mav climbs in and won't shut up. Whilst it is cute it is extremely frustrating when you would like the birds and natural light to wake you sometimes....

Nat made the point yesterday that I am clearly a much happier person when we are somewhere that is remote and away from other people, lights on all night, cars/trucks driving around etc. Old Laura and Elim Beach had this and she is right, I do dig the quiet and self sufficiency of being "out there".

We surprisingly were on the road at 7:55am which was great. I think naively I thought that the Toms's may have struggled to get going after sleeping on 2cm thin beds on the ground and in a tent together with no room, but to their credit they did and I think with the exception of Darren whilst it may not be their thing, they are embracing it and taking it in their stride.

520klm of dirt road awaited on route to Weipa today. The Peninsular's largest town based around the largest Bauxite mine in the world run by Rio Tinto. We had stops at Musgrave for morning tea, Archer River for lunch where we tried the famous Archer Burger (unanimously however Dad's home burgers still rule) and then the last 200klm into Weipa after that.

For the last couple of days the boys have been really playing up going to bed and last night was no different, so today we confiscated everything. All that was in the back seat was their booster seats. Nothing to do for 8 hours on red dusty road...

Strangely, they travelled well and had fun with 2 pegs they found and some tissues. Lots of knock knock jokes and eye spy, chatting and laughing so there might be a message there again for Mummy and Daddy as we had learnt last year on our trip......

The dust tastes, smells, looks and annoys us the same as it did for months last year. The trucks over here in the top end don't have as much respect for travellers as they do in the west however, they don't slow down any and they seem to be only concerned for themselves. The massive plumes of dust they create take minutes to settle and this prolongs your journey unless you are stupid enough to try and drive through it blind....

Into Weipa and the only caravan park here. It is packed and given the only option, there doesn't seem  to be much attention payed to cleanliness in the amenities. Additionally you just pile your rubbish underneath a tree and someone must just come along and pick it up at some stage.

As we drove in there was a thousand kids in the only pool, so while it was 31 degrees at 4:30 pm when we got here, we set up and decided to brave the pool with the kids wee in it and all of the red dust wash off for a swim. It was reasonably clean I guess but the colour of the finish was able to fool you in terms of the clarity of the water, so while we cooled off a bit, we had showers straight after.

Noodles for dinner after those big burgers, and a few stubbies to wash down and hopefully the boys will settle tonight and we can relax a bit.

2 nights here and then we move north again.

Jase & Nat. 

Old Laura Homestead



Old Laura's very own Mater!

 

Archer River Roadhouse