West2East Challenge Day 4: Tjukairla to Warakuna - 476km

What a night at Tjukayirla Roadhouse! It may have been getting dark when we arrived, but right on cue the sun dipped below the horizon displaying its spectacular trail of colour in its wake. The Rangefinders looked very dramatic against the sky but before long we were plunged into darkness, so thank goodness for electric hook-up! Dinner this evening was a BBQ, and Gina has managed to whip up a delicious feta salad to go with our flame-grilled sausages and burgers cooked perfectly by Nathan our photographer from Bauer Media – multi-talented! There’s no mobile reception in sight as we’re in the depth of the Great Central Road in the Victoria Desert and there’s not a single grumble about this from the group! After dinner Gina (Bailey Australia Marketing Manager) and I were fascinated by our tour leader Warwick’s story tales; wrapped up in jumpers, coats and blankets and sat in front of the camp fire, I could have listened to Wazza’s Australian history recollections all evening.  Warwick has been a fundamental part of this team right from the start. A year in the planning and preparation, he’s our font of all knowledge for our trip with some impressive experience in his background, not just about the technical aspects of our journey but about The Outback too and it’s hard not to be humbled by his wisdom and endless patience, he’s such a great guy.

A quick game of cards and a cuppa tea finishes off our evening nicely before another early start for the team. We’re back on The Red and although we travelled less than 500km today, it still took us longer than we thought, probably worsened by wanting to pull up and take photographs but today we were truly spoiled! No Kangas but we do see a ‘caravan’ of camels! These ships of the desert must stand nearly 2m high and stroll across the road without a care in the world, feasting on the roadside vegetation as they go. I’ve never seen wild camels before, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a real camel at all! These lovely lumbering creatures soon disappear into the bush, camouflaged by the tall shrubbery and we’re on our way to Warburton for a spot of lunch. The roads around Warburton are particularly treacherous. We’ve passed a collections of cars abandoned at the side of the road following the drivers losing control on the sand; there’s no Mayday out here! We’ve reached 200km from the nearest town when we reached a car which has recently crashed. The car is on its roof and the contents scattered across the red sand – shopping still just about in bags, food, a box of eggs has landed the right way up in the road and ironically advises us that the contents are fragile! The stereo lies about 2ft from the car, some’s medication thrown in the dirt and the boot is lying open after the car has rolled onto its roof. The important things have been taken though – the petrol has been siphoned from the tank! This car will eventually join the 80-odd others we’ve seen (and no doubt countless others to come) at the side of the road like an abandoned car graveyard from the last 4 decades like lonely forgotten about pieces of history.

By the end of today we’ll have safely covered over 2,000km; 1 quarter of our way through our journey! The Red continues and although it’s cloudy today, the dark clouds provide some real showmanship and emphasize the enormity of this amazing country. Looking around it’s hard to believe that there’s nothing here at all, but instead of feeling a little overwhelmed by the sheer openness as I’d have expected, I feel completely comfortable and at home here.

The sun dips below the mauve, grey and blue clouds like a beacon to give another intense display of rainbow colours whilst we hitch up at Warakurna. As we prepared our BBQ, we got chatting to one of the miners working locally with a group of colleagues who’ve just finished dinner and he says we can finish off their beef casserole – so we feast tonight! We spotted a dingo running through the site so it’s probably not a good idea to leave my trainers outside of the van tonight as apparently the dingoes love a Nike!

Another 350km tomorrow to Yulara, the home of Uluru and I can't lie, tomorrow is the day I've been most looking forward to! Ayres Rock here we come! 

I hope you’re enjoying the journey, there’s plenty more to see here:

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