Organization of replenishment
Temperature - Day (maximum):
approx. 26-30 degrees
Anna Plains Station – 28.05.2001 – 30.05.2001
At six o’clock in the morning I am already with Chris the gardener at the camels and show him how and what to feed our animals. Tanja and I have to go to Port Hedland for two days to do the final shopping. Chris agreed to look after the camels while we were away. As he loves animals more than anything, they are in good hands. We will also drop off the supply bags of food packed by Tanja at the Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park and Pardoo Roadhouse. Over the last few weeks we have been working for a long time on how we can cover the 2500 kilometers to Alice Springs and have enough to eat during the seven to eight months. Of course, it would be possible to feed on the food we carry along the entire route, but we would have to organize the expedition differently. There are three ways to survive this risk. It would be interesting, for example, to do exactly as the explorers did 100 or 150 years ago. But that would mean living mainly from hunting. However, hunting is very time-consuming because the game is not exactly where we are walking. Then it has to be gutted and prepared, which takes a lot of time. However, as we are reporting live on our expedition and this takes up at least a third of our total time, there is hardly any opportunity left for hunting. Apart from that, we have a problem with killing a goat, for example, in order to cut off one of its legs and leave the rest. What a waste! Personally, I wouldn’t mind killing an animal if you eat it completely, but cutting off a piece and leaving the rest to rot is a crime against nature. On previous expeditions it was a different story, but today we have the chance to take our food with us. Of course, we could also shoot a lizard or a bush turkey, but these endangered animals are strictly protected. Only Aborigines are still allowed to hunt them.
The next option for covering the enormous distance from the west coast to central Australia without a food supply is special freeze-dried food from the company. Riders in Germany. We have been working with the owners of the company for a long time. Reiter talked about it. According to our calculations, we would have had a maximum of 220 kilograms of food for eight months, which is the ideal solution. Unfortunately, the Australian quarantine authorities put a spanner in the works by banning the import of this high-quality food. Tanja and I were allowed to import 22 kg of these fabulous products, which guarantees us 12 meals a month per person, but is nowhere near enough. In the end, we ended up back where we left off last time. That means we bought all but the 22 kg. Rider food all in one supermarket. The total weight is approx. 560 kg. become. It is impossible to load this weight onto the backs of our camels alongside all the equipment and, in an emergency, 400 liters of water. Firstly, we would collapse under the enormous strain of daily loading and secondly, our camels would go limp. So we have no choice but to organize a replenishment.
In a previous diary entry I wrote about how we want to do it and now the whole thing is round and should work. In the end, our plan is as follows: We walk the first 120 kilometers to the 80 Mile Beach Caravan Park with only one food bag. When we get there about a week later, we load another bag of food. That’s enough for the next two weeks. In this way, our camels do not have to walk with a heavy load right from the start and have the opportunity to build up a few muscles in the first few weeks.
Collin from the caravan park will bring us three bags (approx. 105 kg) after about 150 kilometers. This supply is more than enough to reach the Kunawarritji Aboriginal community, about 600 km from the coast. Karl, who runs the Aboriginal community store there with his wife Cathy, will in the meantime collect another 6 food sacks from the Pardoo Roadhouse and store them with him. When we get there we can load the 210 kg of supplies. These should be enough for us to run at least 1000 km. At Warakurna Roadhouse we pick up another 4 bags. Collin will send them to Perth in a truck. There they are transferred to another truck and driven along the Great Central Road for about 1800 kilometers. kilometers to the Warakurna Roadhouse. From here, we would have to cover the rest of the distance to our next stage destination.
In good spirits, we leave the Great Northern Highway with our Holden and trailer to turn off onto the dirt road to the 80 Mile Beach Caravan Park. As always, we are welcomed with open arms. Our food sacks are quickly loaded into a container. Before we continue our journey, we have a cup of tea with Collin and discuss a few details. Tim, who bought our trailer to transport his off-road machine, hands us the money. Then we say goodbye again and drive the 100 km to the Pardoo Roadhouse. The owners Graham and Suzanne let us use their office to safely store the food bags. “I’ll make an appointment with Karl. Don’t worry about anything. We’ll keep a close eye on your possessions,” says Graham with a laugh. We cover the next 150 km to Port Hedland in 1 ½ hours. We get a pitch for our tent at the Dixon Caravan Park and use the few hours of today to buy most of the food we still need.
Having lived on the remote farm for the last few weeks, we don’t feel particularly comfortable in the city. The traffic noise, the exhaust fumes, the many people, the overabundance of consumer goods, the fast food restaurants with their terribly unhealthy food and the many ugly buildings in this port city confuse us. The next day we take care of a few little things, collect our rifles from the police station and by lunchtime we are already on our way back.
