237 km
Change of plans…we found a camp site that has showers and toilets along the road to Chilli Beach. So we decided if we need to stay somewhere let’s do it where we have some amenities.
We first past through Archer River Roadhouse. It was about 11am and so we thought it was time for brunch . We had egg and bacon… and man they did not skimp on the bacon!! I swear there were 4 large pieces each! As a note fuel is $2.00 per liter diesel. The roadhouse is also the last resting place of Toots. She was a pioneering woman that distributed supplies all over the peninsula in her truck that was loaded by hand for years before she and her husband got a forklift.
It was just outside Archer River that it start drizzling and then raining. The roads were getting more slippery.
By the time we got to the campsite- Chuulangun it was only midday. There is a toilet here as well as a rustic shower…but a shower at least . However Johan was keen to keep moving and actually stay at Lockhart River. The only problem here is that there is no camping. So we thought let’s go to the national park campsite, just beyond them there should be Telstra signal and we can book a campsite. Christo eventually got some signal and looked for availability in 3 camp sites, but there was just one for a car for one night. No cancellation of bookings at Chilli either, so we back tracked some 20km to a free camp spot at Brown Creek and found it empty still- very luck considering it was raining more and more and it was after 4pm.
It was raining hard in the ranges , which is a good tar road by the way, but very windy. The clouds were low and we couldn’t see much in terms of views. It was still raining as we started to set up camp. The rain lightened to a drizzle so we setup the free standing tents on groundsheets in the mud. Luckily the mud was not too bad here. Not the red, clay mud that we had now driven through twice in our efforts to find a spot to camp.
We set up wings off the kitchen area to help protect from the rain, but the tent seam on top is loose and thus drips water there as well as around the joins… so it was sitting in between drips.
We had a shower in the shower tent and used river water. Christo and Matt watched a movie in their tent , as per usual, and Lara and I played Bananarama as we call it. The actual name is Bananagrams.
The wind picked up a lot during the night, with kitchen tent wings flying around and it stoking the smouldering logs that we found at camp when we got here. So sleep was very disturbed !