Day 15 - KFC to Hell's Gate
For the first time in two weeks, we heard rain on our roof last night, and
woke to a clean, clear morning. The irony is that I had spent some time hosing
the worst of the dust off the car and parts of the van last night - when Mother
Nature could have taken care of it.
We still can't work out why - except that we are on holidays - but it took
us a really long time to get on the road this morning. KFC is a really peaceful
and tranquil place. We also got talking to a couple of the other vans on site
(there were only four of us and one tent - so nice and quiet) so maybe that
contributed. One of them had their beauitful black and tan kelpie with them
which made us miss Slick. We really should have brought him with us.
Anyway, by 11am we were on the road after ascertaining that the rain hadn't
done any damage to the roads and had probably just helped to settle the dust.
Apart from a little sand and dust and one steep creek crossing in the first ten
kilometres, the road was bliss. A true highway compared to what we travelled
yesterday. 45km later and we were back on the real Savannah Way. And it was
even bitumen for a while! Another 55km later, which covered pretty good gravel
we were arriving at Hell's Gate Roadhouse. We could have kept going (and Greg
was keen to) but I wanted a quiet afternoon of not driving and this is where I
planned we would get to so we filled up with fuel (at $2.03 per litre) and
selected a campsite out the back. This roadhouse has only recently reopened so
it's still pretty rustic. We amused ourselves with the hand painted sign out
the front (opposite the airstrip on the other side of the road) which said
"Airport - International and Domestic Arrivals/Departures". As the
afternoon wore on, and we heard so many jets fly overhead, Greg was just
waiting for one of them to land at the Hells Gate International airport!
I cooked us some lunch and then we settled into some quiet time. Greg
started a new book, while I read some magazines, did a load of washing (the
cheapest washing machines we have found so far - $2.40 for a load), swept out
the van, gave myself a facial (I know, that's not very four-wheel-driveish but
true 4WDers would be horrified by the collection of Clarins products I am
carrying in one of the bathroom cupboards!), had afternoon tea (coffee machine
coffee run from the generator with banana cake) and all in all, relaxed.
As the sun went down it actually started to cool so we lit a fire which I
then ended up cooking spaghetti bolognaise on and we enjoyed a night in front
of the campfire.
posted by Tracey @ 9:22 pm
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