Around Oz the First Time - Chapter 13 - Barkely Homestead to Renner Springs

The wind has not abated overnight, and the morning is so fresh we have reverted to the jeans and jumpers. Please bring back the heat. The shower, given we are attached to a water can and does last a little longer than if we were at a free camp. Little did I know that because I had turned the water pumps on the van was using water from our tanks not the other source. Before we leave, I top them up again.

I manage to put my foot in some wet dirt, red wet dirt. This means I have it caked on my shoes. Unknowingly I venture back to the van and stop short of depositing a large amount in the van when I notice the welcome mat has started to remove it from my shoes. Robyn breaks out the bacon and eggs this morning in an attempt to warm us up.

The computer says I have full coverage on my Sim card in the machine, but the internet is sketchy at best. A lady was complaining last night that Wi-Fi was only for those parked close to the reception area. You can’t have everything.

Julian went home from hospital yesterday – emergency averted. He has been given another week of R&R to recover fully, he tells me. I trust he actually does just that and doesn’t try to keep up with working from home.

Today’s driving is much easier. The wind is at our backs. What was 24 litres/100km has become 19 litres and less. It’s a run across the Barkley Tablelands, aiming for Renner Springs. The first part is almost 200km straight drive to the Stuart Highway at Three Ways. The topography changes markedly along the way, and back again. Its flat but not table flat but flat enough. Amusing ourselves we discuss the grass cutting of the sides of the road. It has been done with some precision. One wonders if it was that job which presented itself to the apprentice and given it is way wider than one simple run. Does that mean it was done in uneven runs allowing the next section to simply add on or was there an even number, a loading of a trailer and a move to the next section? Who knows – the Shadow knows.

Three Ways is both a joy and a disappointment. We have been driving for 2 hours and we need the break. The centre itself is an oasis in the middle of nowhere. Murals and exhibitions await but first as we drive in we are ushered around the back to quick fill tanks as the dinner rush is coming and diesel is easier in a fast flow tank.

Let’s talk disappointment. Robyn heads to the reception to pay the fuel bill – here it is 191.9 more than 10 cents cheaper than Barkley Homestead. Bill paid, she orders a cup of tea, and a hot chocolate. The tea is make it yourself with a stale tea bag and the hot chocolate is almost undrinkable. Just as well we repast in the van on stuff from the fridge and pantry, heaven help what they would have served up inside.

Onward to Renner Springs and Robyn takes the wheel. I need to attempt to sleep the last of this cold off. It doesn’t help, the wind is still blowing and temperature differences have been significant. There is dust, lots of dust whipped up by the wind. From time to time Robyn wakes me to take the required landscape photograph, but basically I sleep close to 2 hours to Renner Springs. I do however manage to get a couple of Tee Shirted ant mounds and some interesting signs which Robyn has been unable to acquire so far.

We hit Renner Springs in the early afternoon. There are only 15 powered sites here. Ours is still occupied. The reception lady, a back-packing French girl, comes to check our assertion. Her gesture of annoyance is clear as only a French girl can create. She retreats to the office and sends out a lad, who we later find to be a British backpacker (we figure her boyfriend, but we are unsure) to adhere a sign to the door of the offending van telling them they have overstayed their welcome.

They put us in a temporary site and rather than simply be ready to move if and when the errant caravaners come back (they are clearly working people and not nomads like us) we decide to put down stakes where we are which is OK by the staff. Van set, its to the pub for a libation. Here the young English male backpacker servers us. His English is so traditional we are taken aback and have to really listen to understand him. It’s not a broad accent, just very correct with the English inflection.

The pub is adorned with caps and the walls and ceilings have lots of messages from past lodgers. I see one from a “Peter” and photograph it for sending to him. There are lots of pictures to take especially of the trucking of very large things to the adjacent mines. One in particular had 6 prime movers at the front and 2 at the back to move it. It must have been something to see.

There is also a mounted pig head with what appears to be a rhinoceros horn. A Razorback can be quite dangerous in its own right but if one were to be adorned with this type of horn, the danger would increase many fold, especially if it had grown the size of the one in an article framed on the wall. It is sitting hung from a crane and must be well in excess of 3 metres long. I didn’t look to see what the size of the tusks had gotten to.

The salt and pepper shakers make you have a second look as they resemble bongs. When you look more closely they have salt and pepper dispensers and olive oil pouring capabilities that give them the unusual look.

He has been in Australia 2 months and working here at Renner Springs 6 weeks. The story goes, he came to Oz, spent all his savings the first 2 weeks on the east coast, decided to get a job and because of the remoteness and the crazy hours he works he has saved up more money that he came to Oz in the first place. He muses he takes all the shifts as the overtime and the penalty rates put him in good stead plus there is not a real lot to do in Renner Springs anyway.

There is a lagoon here fed by a windmill. There are all types of bird life. The British lad suggests the Geese will wake you at 5.30am but its not them you have to worry about as the rooster will wake you at 4.30am. The geese are OK as long as you are feeding them so we noticed another van find out. I am tempted to get the collapsible rod and reel out but talk myself out of it and grab the Oreos to share with the group on “beer rock” instead. There are 2 limes left, I squeeze one and have a vodka lime and mineral water – very nice and refreshing.

We had consumed an average of less than 22 litres per 100 kilometres of fuel today. Most of the time the wind was in the rear quarter. Talking to some coming from the north hears horror stories of something in the vicinity of 35 litres per 100 kilometres driving directly into the wind. We are thankful for small mercies having only seen 25 litres at the worst point so far. At times like that it might be worth simply pulling over and spending a day to sit it out. Our budget is such that although we are not overly conscious of day to day costs we certainly don’t want to spend money on fuel when it could be so easily be spent on a night cruise or a nice dinner later in the trip.

Dinner tonight will be a barbeque. We have some sausages that need cooking. They are thick and we will take the left overs with us for tomorrow’s lunch (if they don’t get past the evening repast). We finally kicked the washing machine in the guts and did a load of washing – no problem really as opposed to getting the fan dangled washing line up (and staying up). Once deployed and the first load completed, I deploy the pegs and hang it out. Only halfway back on the trek to the onlooking audience sitting on “beer rock” the line falls over. I thought I had distributed the weight reasonably fairly but the wind was way too much for the very short pegs they give you to hold it down. Rethinking required.

Not much more driving for days on end to go before we start spending extended time in places – I am looking forward to that. The 324 kilometres today was shared almost 50/50 between us. Daly Waters Pub for lunch tomorrow then on to Mataranka. One might say a day of nothing but driving, yet there is much to talk about, isn’t there? That’s what this type of trip is all about.