Starting from the Alice Springs end, our first
day saw us complete the first 200kms of tarmac,
pulling up stumps in a free camp and relaxing by a
fire while we watched the vibrant sunset turn into
an incredibly bright star show.
We rose early, eager to tackle the rough stuff!
Undertaking the necessary checks and readying
items inside the van to endure some vibration
and bounce from the corrugations, we made our
way into the Yuendumu Aboriginal Community,
throwing down $50 to top up 20L of fuel.
As soon as our tyres met the unsealed road, we
second-guessed our decision. I swear I could fit
my size 8 shoe in-between those humps in the
rougher sections, and there was no way we were
getting our 3.5-tonne caravan to ‘glide’ over the
top of that washboard!
With Wayne tightly gripping the steering wheel as
he did his best to swerve into the least impactful
tracks along the deep corrugated track, I’d be
lying if I said we weren’t all feeling highly strung
and a little sick in the stomach.
50 \
After eight hours on those unsealed roads with
multiple stops to check everything, do nervous
wees and make another coffee, we’d only made
it 160kms (averaging a mere 20km/h)! We felt
more than a little defeated, and considered
turning around.
Sleeping on it, we decided to continue – we knew
we’d regret it otherwise!
We further adjusted our placement of items in
both the 4WD and van, which helped ease some of
the horrid rattling noises that made our stomachs
drop, and deflated the tyres another 5psi.
The conditions didn’t really change until we passed
the turn off to Balgo, but we seemed to relax as
our confidence grew. Passing multiple car wrecks,
shredded and popped tyres, vehicle parts, a pop-
top caravan roof, a burnt-out camper trailer, car
batteries, and various other items along the track,
it gave us a constant reality check.
We realised that it didn’t matter how long it took
us to do the track – just that we were doing it!
The beauty of indefinite travels meant we weren’t