Helga

Helga

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Day 13: Growing Ginger in the capricorn

Greetings all.
Day 13 and tonight we are in the Palmer River Roadhouse. A good gentlre day yesterday. Once Dick got back from his mining tour we mozzied south to Archer River Roadhouse and dragged out the tents again. What a lovely spot. We camped out under the trees and went up to the roadhouse for a beer and a meal and some amazing conversations with some whacky Australians. The road from Weipa to Archer River is great so we were pretty relaxed and ready for the battle today.

Up at 530 this am and on the road by 645. Good road down to Coen for a Mrs Mac's breakfast and then back into the crap. Olga and Helga do NOT LIKE playing in the sandpit. We both had moments today as we dropped front wheels into sand drifts and did huge wobbles all over the road. Puckering moments!!! Hard work all the way down to Lakeland where we hit the seal after 9 1/2 hours on the road and cruised on down to Palmer River where we have taken a "tented accommodation" which is essentially living in a nylon tunnel house. Cheap enough so it will do.

Now for the growing ginger. Those of you who have known me for a while will know that my beard has not always been grey - today it is back to ginger. The red dust has settled into the sunscreen and dyed my beard quite an original shade of ginger. No doubt it will wash out eventually.

Tomorrow we plan to stick to the tar and get around to Georgetown. Then Normanton and a hard think about whether we can hit the gravel again or come back down to the Mt Isa Road. Our time is a bit constrained now if we plan to fly out of Darwin back to NZ before the 22nd of May.

Cheers all.

1 comment:

  1. All well it seems...the women here say hi Elle, her friend Shelly, cousie April and me. We are in TGA for the weekend and just had dinner at April's house. They all too tiddly to write coherent commentary but mightily impressed with the tour so far ...we need to check google for some map guidance.

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