Strange encounter & hope for better feeding grounds
N 23°32'02.7" E 149°52'48.5"
Day: 244-245 Stage three / total expedition days 635-636
Sunrise:
05:28
Sunset:
18:52
As the crow flies:
16,2/15,7
Daily kilometers:
29/30
Total kilometers:
6756/6786 km
Temperature - Day (maximum):
39°/41° degrees, sun approx. 60°/62°
Temperature - Night:
20,9°/20,7°
Latitude:
23°31'31.2" / 23°32'02.7"
Longitude:
149°43'35.7" / 149°52'48.5"
Mackenzie River Camp & Tropical Camp – 16.01.2003 – 17.01.2003
We leave the old route, cross the Mackenzie River, which is dry at this point, and follow a dirt road used by cars. After a short time, a jeep stops next to us. A woman looks at us with a grim expression. “Good afternoon!” we call out in a friendly manner. “I have come to check up on you. You are on our land. Do you know that? I only found out yesterday morning that you were coming through here. Should have known sooner but no one told me. Where did you come from? From what? Via the old cattle track? That’s impossible. Nobody knows it. Only we know where it is. Where are you going? Why are you taking this route? There is a much better one. No, I don’t know it. I’ll tell my neighbor. She’ll show you the way,’ we hear. Then she gets out of the jeep with her shy children, snaps a few pictures, only to leave us standing in a cloud of dust seconds later. We are glad when the bad-tempered woman has disappeared and turn into a narrow side track just one kilometer further on.
The landscape is changing. The path winds its way over gentle hills. More and more clearings bear witness to denser settlement and even better land use. Huge fallow fields and gray meadows spread out before us. Our boys drink about 300 liters of water at a drinking trough. Navigating the much smaller farms, winding paths and tracks becomes increasingly difficult. We are happy when we set up camp 263 on a bending creek bed. Down here in the Creek Valley, tropical plants twine around the tall trees. Thousands of crickets chirp and many birds chirp. There are still a few blades of grass for our camels to eat. They haven’t had enough in the last few days. We are hoping for better feeding grounds in the next few days.
