She would love to polish the moron’s teeth

Day: 220 Stage three / total expedition days 611

Sunrise:
05:22

Sunset:
18:53

As the crow flies:
28,2

Daily kilometers:
38

Total kilometers:
6372 km

Temperature - Day (maximum):
36° degrees, sun approx. 56°

Temperature - Night:
16.3° degrees

Latitude:
22°38'12.6"

Longitude:
147°34'08.3"

Miclere-Camp – 22.12.2002

Although all our equipment and saddles are dripping wet this morning, we set off in good time. We follow the asphalt road again without any further incidents. Large fallow fields appear next to us. Due to the drought, the farmers have not yet been able to sow their seeds. “If it rains that hard a few more times, it will soon be lush green here,” I say, pointing to the barren fields. We pass the Miclere, Black Ridge and Springs gold mines. Not far from us we can see the winding towers of the Blair Athol Mine. We have been back in the land of the golden precious metal for a few days now. With every kilometer east of here, however, we will also come across many coal mines.

Civilization begins to expand more and more. Traffic is slowly increasing. Suddenly there is another unpleasant obstacle ahead of us. A bridge stretches over single-track railroad tracks. From here it is impossible to see over the heavily arched overpass. So we don’t know whether a car or road train is coming towards us on the other side. Apart from that, the crossing is far too narrow to allow a caravan of camels to cross it while being overtaken by cars. Jasper would plunge in fear over the low guardrails to his certain death. We stand paralyzed in front of the large steel structure and consider our next steps.

“It’s best if I run ahead. When I’m in the middle of the bridge, I’ll stop the oncoming traffic. When everything is clear, I’ll give you a signal. Then you can start walking,” Tanja suggests. “Good,” I reply and wait until Tanja has jogged the hundred meters ahead. “Everything’s okay!” she calls and waves. “Camis walk up!” I order and set off at a goose step. As quickly as my legs allow, I stride up the bridge. My heart beats with nervousness. What if Tanja can’t stop the cars? What happens if a driver overtakes us from behind without thinking? My thoughts are racing. My breathing is fast. When I reach the middle of the bridge, Tanja runs to the foot of the bridge to stop an oncoming car. She runs in the middle of the road and waves with both hands, but the driver barely slows down. Tanja now moves into the middle of the oncoming lane to force the driver to reduce his speed. Spellbound, I watch as the driver finally reacts and slowly drives past her. As soon as he has left Tanja behind, he steps on the gas again. I watch in horror as he drives towards me and the camels. I immediately start waving my hands around too. To prevent him from driving past the camels and causing Jasper to jump over the low bridge railing in fear, I also cross to the opposite lane. The car brakes again. A young driver looks at me angrily. As soon as he is at my height, he squeezes past our camels in his car. I can’t believe it, but he has no regard for the caravan. I look after him in dismay and brace myself for the worst. When the driver engages second gear, he is at Edgar’s height. Edgar swerves to the left. When Jasper notices the car close to him, he jumps to the left. His legs move right next to the crash barriers. Everything happens in a fraction of a second. Jasper jumps forward and slams into Edgar. Edgar also jumps forward. But Istan is too lazy or too tired to be infected by the panic behind him. Relieved, I pull our boys onwards. I don’t have much time to think about the incident. The only thing that counts now is to leave this bridge behind us in one piece.

In the meantime, Tanja manages to stop another vehicle. Suspecting nothing good, I keep looking backwards. In the corner of my eye, I spot a car that actually puts on its indicators and starts to overtake. There are still about 30 meters to the end of the bridge when the car squeezes past the camel’s bodies. Jasper explodes again and slams his legs against the crash barrier. Edgar races forward and before Jasper can attempt to jump over the crash barriers he is dragged forward. The driver stops just before us, pulls open his door, jumps out and takes a photo of the nervous camel train on the bridge. “What are you doing this for and why?” he asks Tanja with a laugh. As I walk past, I can feel her immense anger. I have the feeling that she would like to polish the moron’s teeth. “I don’t have time to answer you. We’re in the middle of a very dicey situation and are trying to direct traffic,” she replies, turning her back on the man and following the caravan.

We take to the bushes just after the bridge. Exhausted and drained but happy to have survived this day in one piece, we set up camp. While Tanja looks after the camels a little later, I tie our tarpaulin in a few bushes. Suddenly I hear the deep rutting cry of a bull. When I lift my head, I almost freeze to ice. Two mighty bulls stand just 10 meters away from me. Their powerful charisma is mighty, even palpable. “We have a visitor,” I say quietly into the walkie-talkie. “Who?” answers Tanja’s voice. “Two bulls are right in our camp. I hope we haven’t disturbed them,’ I reply a little nervously, because we’ve also heard of bulls attacking people. “I’m sure they’re peaceful,” Tanja reassures me.

As if the two mighty visitors weren’t there, I continue to set up camp. I move slower and more deliberately than usual and keep glancing at them. They also seem to be watching my every hand movement. It takes at least a quarter of an hour before they lose interest and leisurely troll away.