Gismo Queen and her King

The stars are out, the dingoes are howling, we have a cracking fire burning and it's fair to say we are the only people camped along the Birdsville Track at the moment - because it is closed!

It rained overnight but we didn't think there was much in it. The other two vehicles at our campsite left before us - one went north and the other went south. After our morning spa (which was quite hot!), we hit the road. The first 30km were quite good so we pulled up for morning tea just outside Dulkaninna Station. It was quite cool, and very flat and open and there was still a bit of drizzle. But we thought the road was still pretty good. The only vehicle we saw was a mine vehicle that passed us and he was heading our direction. Just as we got back in our vehicles after elevenses, we heard a truckie on the UHF talking about how soft the Track was, how he had slipped and slid so much that he had had to leave one of his trailers behind and how awful the clay top was. "Uh-oh" we thought, as we turned back onto the Track. The truck passed us heading south, so we knew he was talking about the road we were about to head out on. 

And so began the hard slog along the Birdsville Track. It was awful. The mud was inches deep, there was next to no track marks to keep your wheels to, we were slipping and sliding all over the road. Everything the truckie said was true. Neill was in front of us and although I sort of tried to follow his line, he was sliding more than we were. Those brand new tyres on our Landcruiser weren't doing much - they were so caked in mud. I was gripping the steering wheel so tight and concentrating so hard. The point when I saw the sign that said it was 25km to the next campground, my heart sank a bit because I thought I couldn't cope with 25km of these road conditions. Then the gravel would come back and I would breath a bit easier but it didn't last forever. 23km down the road - with nothing to see along the way - we came across the Tom Brennan memorial, which was his original punt (ferry) used to ferry passengers across the Cooper Creek when it was in flood. We were amazed at how much mud was vber our cars and caravans. I marvelled at how the wheels were even turning - there was so much mud stuck to the wheel arch.

Just down the hill, we were pleasantly surprised to see the turn off to the campground. We turned in with a sigh of relief. Although it was a bit muddy and slippery, we found a campsite and were just making lunch when we heard a vehicle pull in behind us. Turns out it was the same mine vehicle that had passed us earlier in the day. The driver was a young man by the name of Aiden who was a diesel mechanic at Roxby Downs, who had been sent up here to fix a grader. He stopped in to tell us the road was closed, that it got worse further north of here, and that he couldn't even get through to the road crew to fix the grader he was there for. He was a very admirable young man for going to that effort to let us know and we appreciated it very much.

So we now feel very intrepid, if not a little isolated. Apparently the Track is closed all the way, as Birdsville had 9mm of rain last night. We know we are not going to see any passing traffic for a couple of days. We do wonder what happened to the other people who left our campground this morning (he is the head of emergency at Cabrini hospital) because it sounds like they wouldn't have got through. All of these questions we pondered while we had afteroon tea of scones with jam and whipped cream, then salmon patties for dinner. So it's not so bad being stranded. We found a good supply of firewood (although we still have bags of the stuff on the roof), have plenty of food, wine and water and it's all very pleasant. We texted my brother on the sat phone for the latest Birdsville weather and he said it was to be fine for the rest of the week, so as soon as the Track dries out, those road crews will get back to work (except for the grader which Aiden couldn't get to to fix), and we'll be on our way again.