Monday 13th May 2013 – Anne Beadell Highway

Rainbow over our campsite

We woke pretty early as we’ve changed our clocks to Western Australia time.  Had a nice rainbow over our campsite!  We bough a few things (a woven basket and a wooden goanna) at the shop as we like the idea of buying aboriginal art where it is made.

Fortunately we don't pay this price for fuel too often!

We’ve heard that the road improves from the roadhouse west and this proved to be true as we are able to get along at around 60kph on a fairly wide, fairly smooth road.  We made a 10km detour to see the wreck of a twin engined Cessna belonging to Goldfield Airlines which crashed in 1993.  Fortunately both people on board survived.  The track was very soft sand crossing many sand hills which was actually quite a lot of fun to drive.

Goldfield Airline's Cessna

There’s a huge area along here that has been burnt out quite recently – last October according to Graham at Ilkurlka.  The vegetation is just coming back in places.  More camels wandering across the road and plenty of opportunity to photograph these.

Lunch was soup and bread (toasted) which we had made in the camp oven last night.

Arrived at Neal Junction mid afternoon which is the junction of the Anne Beadell Highway and the Connie Sue Highway.  Len naming them after his wife and daughter. Despite what is written by some, Neale Junction was not named after Len’s son but after the Neale Breakaways – mountains/hills in the area.

Len Beadell's plaque at Neale Junction

Dinner tonight was silverside and vegetables – delicious.  Another cold night and a campfire was appreciated.