desert AN EXTRAORDINARY DESERT ADVENTURE Words and images: Emma George here are road trips and then there are giving travellers distances to nearest towns and extraordinary experiences! Tackling roads. Some of these markers we found, many the West Australian desert with three others had been souvenired unfortunately. young kids may sound crazy, but The markers became our challenge so Texploring the Gary Junction Road and Karlamilyi we’d know exactly what to look for. One was (Rudall River) National Park is something we the milestone of the North Territory and Western were really excited about. Australian border – finally back in our home state We’d been on the road for months, of WA, but more remote than ever and not a car conquering Cape York, the Gulf and Arnhem to be seen all day. Land, but my husband, Ashley, and I, with We rolled out our map of Australia on the our three young boys in tow wanted one last red dirt in the middle of the road showing the adventure before heading home to Perth. kids exactly where we were, where we’d been Deserts are dangerous places, so months and where we were going. Our next stop was were spent planning this trip, making sure to refuel at Kiwirrkurra, a small Aboriginal town we had enough food and water for five days, and one of the most remote communities in permits, spares, and repair kits for the car and the world. camper as well as safety procedures, a satellite phone, EPIRB, accessible fire extinguisher, first aid and a nightly call-home regime. After our Nissan Patrol’s major service in Clockwise from top left: Spinifex can be lethal if it catches on fire under your car. The iron-rich rock hills provided a great Alice Springs, we were confident enough to face look out over our campsite. Burnt out trucks and cars are a constant reminder that deserts are the 2000 kilometres of dirt through parts of the rough on vehicles and dangerous places if you are not well prepared. The Gibson is rich in reptiles. Gibson, Little Sandy and Big Sandy deserts. Wild camels are a feral pest. The wildflowers in the desert had to be seen to be believed. We were fortunate to observe such a harsh environment in full bloom. Also, to navigate one of the iconic roads built in the 1960s by Len Beadell, the explorer that bulldozed most of the roads through the Western Desert such as the Gunbarrel Highway and Sandy Blight Junction Road. A wave of sadness engulfed me as we drove in. We have visited many Aboriginal communities distance. Before long we turned into the well Desert Queens Baths in Rudall River about Being October, things were beginning to This is a community of hardship and poverty. Our on our travels, but this one was different; maybe and were happy to find fellow travellers. On 700 kilometres. heat up, but we were horrified when the car boys had trouble understanding that people lived because it was so remote. Our children never go chatting, we discovered that most of them were Fuel being a priority we hoped to get some started to heat up too! When we hit the dirt, in these conditions and I felt ashamed that I’d been without and this was a real eye-opener for them planning to tackle the Wapet Road and Kidson from the store in Kunawarritji before we headed the temperature soared past 100 degrees and complaining about a lack of airconditioning when and me. Seeing how these children survived, my Track north to the coast at Eighty Mile Beach. to Newman. Stopping at another Beadell we had no other option than to switch off the these people suffer through scorching summers boys realised how lucky they were. As we set up camp, the kids couldn’t resist marker, I called the Kunawarritji store on the airconditioning and wind down the windows. with nothing more than a tent for a house. Once refuelled we climbed back into the getting under the water pump and playing in satellite phone to let them know we’d be arriving. Wind and dust were flying through the car and We soon found the general store and looked dusty Patrol and came upon Beadell’s old ration the mud. And, while I was happily thinking that The last thing we wanted was to miss the store with the noise I could barely hear the kids in for someone to open the fuel pump. No self truck down the road. Apparently it caught on I didn’t have to ration the water that night, there and have to wait two nights until it opened again the back let alone see them. How ironic, just service here! We’d arrived well before closing, fire in 1960 when they were working on the road was a loud bang; thunder boomed from above; Monday morning. The store manager met us when you need airconditioning is the one time but it seemed Kiwirrkurra is serviced from Alice and the stories are legendary about Beadell the heavens opened up and lightning danced at the bowser and it was lucky that we already it can’t be used! Springs and they run on Northern Territory time. being hit by a pot of exploding stew and pea along the desert sands. had fuel in the tank because this was the most Travelling for us is all about the adventure The remotest part of the world and no fuel! soup and how he shot a hole in the boiling water We had been on the road for three months expensive diesel of our trip at $3.20/litre! and this was just beginning. Instead of dull, flat Luckily for us the store operator was a good tank behind the cabin and made a cup of tea! and it had only rained one day. A thunderstorm in We went into their wonderful airconditioned sandy desert it was breathtakingly beautiful bloke and let us fill our car up. Finding suitable camp spots in the desert is the desert is a real treat – what a thrill – imagine store and I could have stayed forever! What a and full of life. After the summer rains, the The local kids crowded around smiling a challenge because there’s not much shelter, the smell of the wet dirt and fresh foliage. It was treat to find a shop with ice-cream so we all country was a patchwork of spinifex, shrubs, and saying hello. A happy, gorgeous bunch of but this night was an exception. I had heard extraordinary as we’d been breathing dust every indulged and I told the kids they could have low lying trees, wild flowers and Sturt Desert kids who showed us their art and around their Jupiter’s Well was a good place to stop and we inch of the way. anything they wanted, but didn’t realise the peas. Stunning. community centre where we looked at some of pushed on to arrive before dark. Once the kids were in bed we studied the store owners would offer them one of their Beadell, throughout his pioneering days way their work, but I was distracted by the sparse As the sun set we found the vegetation map searching for the next place to camp cute puppies! ‘Food only,’ I quickly added. As before GPS, had left markers along the tracks amount of old toys, clothing and equipment. became shrubbier and saw larger trees in the and, not having too many choices, aimed for it turned out every town offered us a puppy 34 | GO CAMPING AUSTRALIA GO CAMPING AUSTRALIA | 35 4000 6000 Hibernia Reef Ashmore Reef Cartier Islet Palmerston Belyuen Ho ward Springs Fog Bay Humpty Doo N Mt Bundey Peron Island Batche East Holothu y North lor A Wes ria a t Holothuria Ree Reef B f e Anso E m n Bay y o a o O B r Ca t B pe Lond D C G Cap r r onderry e Boug a a A ainville t e l Scott Reef L it i y E L s p Hay ong Reef a es Cree O IP n Mt Greenw k a N ood Em H V 1 erald S C 35 Nauiyu prings R Cape Voltaire ADMIRALTY Hy ( Tippera A MONT land Bay Daly River) ry AGUE SO GULF Kalumburu JO E UN SEPH BONA T D PARTE GULF R Peppi Wad menarti A Bigg C eye P e I (Port Keats) a Pear A r ce Point Ng 2 s LF anmarriyan o g 000 N YORK S Th U a O eda n G O U r ND E Que B e G Coronation Is ID en Dorisvale v s R i R C B ha R n F BRUNSW M n itzm Womb ICK BAY A e auric ungi Heywood Islands C l e River Oombulgurri A V R IC Augustus Island N Adele Islan T A d le O R N a R Legune R A o d Wyndha B g s m Car IA M ela y lton A A ip r r Hill Y ch Mt Hann D e Spirit r Montgomery v Hill I r A Is 779 Drysdale River i RIV ee R A ER n D Pantijan R aS oubtful Bay Ku N c u nunurra TO Auvergne T D c O imbe u n ER r Creek d COLLIER Lake K R Arg R B a yle N 00 r I A 0 y BA e P R 4 Ca Y K I V D pe M i Leveque B E R v llage S S N L E Y i s E S K t r O R Newry e ST Lombadina k K A I Gib arunji n a b Rive e R A r D i 0 Bardi c un 0 i ham Riv t K R er 0 a a 2 T D Bullit Pe I O r Y a Outst nder Ba N La B ation y I N u k s E O e Arg Emer Oobagoo N Beverley yle t iau Point ma G d Y B S D n G R s KING e Sprin i R osewood Mo l gs a e Victo unt Hart l l R ria Riv Kupung r N R er Do S arri e A Wate Yarralin wns L C rloo W Beagle Bay SOUND L b A I A m R Lissade V O E R a ll E H Mermaid Reef Cape Baskerville O h Warm S C un Mount K R P House (Turkey Creek) EY Clerke Reef O C L Coulom D Nap L A W b Point erby ier Downs D R Mt Remark O Mt Broome Mt Ord Yulum U able M R bu (Tableland) 751 t Parker Mistak Mount Imperieuse Reef 935 947Glenroy D 724 e Creek Sanford Kimberly Dow R Bedford Downs Yee ns iver Limbunya r da Ord e Mt We R v F R lls ive i I AN 9 r Da R 200 T Leopold G 83 guragu Z y ES Lansdo Broome Roebuck Plain o wne Kalkar s R Downs r indji O Ca z mballin t A a Roebuck Bay Y i lice Downs i Looma F r Than Inverway o goo Foss t il Downs c Fitzroy Cr Ma N i ossing rga icholson Mt F V re Bu arquharson RIV t Halls Creek nda 444 ER R Babrongan i Lagrang Tower Yungngora v Flora e Bay Bidyadanga e La Valley Nongra R 225 r mboo Lake UDA M Birrindud LL h E argaret R u D iver Ru Lajam c G by Plains anu a AR RIVER e RA Christ B mas Creek Gordon Downs HIS Anna Plai TORY e ns and we could have returned home with a truck F il The Rudall River was named by Frank ACT M Mt Jun load of them! FILE Ck ction Hann after the surveyor and explorer S Getting there hty turt Creek 617 Another day’s driving in the heat and Soon the spinifex closed in around us on this Eig Supp William Frederick Rudall (pronounced Wal l–al TheDow ns lejack Downs dust without the airconditioner and we finally narrow road and Ashley was doing his best rally Gary Junction Road Roo-dal, with stress on the second Sandfire Mindibungu arrived at Rudall River.