Report by Steve Curtis
Experienced at rising early, breakfast and packing promptly, we departed at 8am for a short drive to one of the old WWII airstrips. This was a great spot to obtain a group photo displaying our formation driving skills. After the second attempt we headed off for the seven hundred kilometre drive to Barkly Homestead.
We arrived at Cape Crawford in time for lunch. Caroline and Sharon gave a radio interview at the bar while the rest of us admired a gyrocopter that landed to refuel. After a leisurely break we set out again discovering somebody’s back paddock. Just one big open field without a tree, hill or anything in sight. Another two hundred and something K’s we found an afternoon tea stop, alongside a large windmill.
Four hundred K’s after lunch we arrived at the Barkly Homestead and pitched our tents as the sun went down. We cleaned up and surprised the cook with another fifty meals required for tea. They really looked after us as they didn’t expect to prepare so many meals on short notice, after all this is the outback. The surprises continued, as Neal who went home sick from Darwin, arrived back during the evening meal. A pleasant evening that had to end because the bar was closing and some wished to arise early to watch some sort of soccer thing.