Day 34 - Outside Timber Creek

Friday, 2 July 2021

We can’t stop having Sapiens conversations. Mostly they revolve around pondering whether homo sapiens have enough of what it takes to get themselves out of the mess they’re currently in. While one of us holds out a bit of hope that the 100^th monkey syndrome might just tip us over towards wising up in time, the evidence is pretty heavily weighted in the other direction: we just don’t have it in us what it would take to create a wise and just and sustainable world civilisation before climate change gobbles us up in its rampant spread.

Mostly, these conversations take up time and ensure we’ll get a late start to the day. Just past mid-morning we pack up and head towards the Tuwakam Track, one of many 4WD-only tracks that run through the Judbarra Park. This one seems doable, first because the sign classifies it as “easy, though some rocky creek crossings”, and second because it’s only 20kms before it meets up with the more salubrious Humbert Track, a gravel road which will take us back north to the Victoria Highway.

Twenty metres into the track we meet our first challenge, a creek crossing with a sharp v-shape that doesn’t look good for our towbar. We do a rough patch up with some rocks to help keep the rear of the car aloft. But our first tentative go finds the towbar stuck on the ground, with the prospect that if we go further it might do some damage. We reverse back up the incline and decide to admit an early defeat.

To take our minds off Sapiens, we start up another audiobook, Barack Obama’s Promised Land, released late last year. For whatever inconsistencies or controversies surrounded his presidency, we’ve always admired his optimism, breadth of knowledge, and mature outlook on life and politics. He’s also a great writer and orator, fun to listen to.

Timber Creek is only another 10kms further down the Victoria Highway. Government and media internet pages are still vague about what’s involved in crossing the border. It’s clear there’s a mandatory 14-day quarantine period, but what does that mean for road travellers towing their homes behind them? We hook up with a cluster of W.A. travellers gathered at a picnic table and listen in on their talk. Mostly it’s more of the same – lots of opinions, but no one knows for sure – but we do learn that Mark McGowan (the premier) is giving a press conference at 3:15pm.

We buy ice creams, snag a table on the wide verandah of the roadhouse and wait for the live broadcast. It starts 15 minutes late and we listen for over an hour, but mostly it’s about Perth’s lockdown and what it means for residents in the lower part of the state. Not a word about state border closures or the plight of the poor grey nomad stuck at the Top End.

Since it's now late in the day, we decide to camp for the night and reassess border crossings tomorrow. We tour a small campground on the Victoria River just west of Timber Creek. Like others, it’s crowded, dense, unattractive. The satellite view on Google Maps shows a track further west, just before the bridge crossing. We find it easily, set back from the highway, down an incline, promising. We follow it down to a flat clearing set picturesquely above a wide waterhole. The locals’ camp, unmarked and unpopulated. We’ll borrow it for the night.