SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER     NORTH POINT CAMP

Our day off. It felt as if we had been here much longer than two weeks!

I did the weekly wash and hung it to dry under the van awning. There was a washing machine in the ablution donga that we two women were able to use – shared with men of course. At least, on days off, it was easy to get access, because just about everyone else on site was off at work. Once the men started arriving back at Fly Camp, from about 4pm onwards, the washing machine was in constant use.

We worked on finishing, as best we could, heat proofing the van. By now it was draped in tarps that John had attached to lengths of poly pipe that we rested across the van roof, and then roped and pegged down. Tarps everywhere! Even a big one he found on the roadside, on one of the Hedland trips, that must have blown off a road train.

John’s system was quite ingenious but took some effort by both of us to get up there.

We were really noticing the heat increasing, so trying to keep the van a bit cooler was essential. It certainly was not going to get any cooler for a long time.

John spread some gravel that he scraped from existing paths, to make a little side path to our van. It should not be quite as muddy then, if we did get any rain.

I went for a walk around the Fly Camp, taking photos of it and the surrounding bush.

There was a Richards Pipit (bird) hanging around near our van, and I managed to get a photo of that.

We were becoming used to the beautiful sunsets that occurred here, every night.

I was starting to perceive the real beauty in this country, which would seem desolate to some.