*The map should show now the entire trip so far, but doesn't seem to save much location information as we thought while out of Telstra reception. As a result there are gaps missing from our route, but hopefully you'll get most of the key points.
Also, not many photos until I can get a better internet connection*
This morning was another very cold morning. While packing everything into the truck my hands went numb at some point, and Frog was shifting things around for a little while before he had to put some gloves on.
Once packed it was straight to the gate for Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park so we could show our permit to drive through to the WA border. We stopped for a quick look at Kata Tjuta (also known as The Olgas), then took the dirt road west to the border.
We had been told that The Outback Way is really rough on the NT side of the border, but is like a highway on the WA side. That wasn't quite true for us. Most of the NT section of the road was pretty good. Not great, but not bad either. Around Docker River it got pretty rough, and for about 20km was a mixed bag of road.
It did improve by the time we got to a roadhouse to refuel. Originally we were thinking we may need to stay the night there, but we ended up getting there early in the afternoon since we gained an hour and a half crossing the border into Western Australia. So instead, we pushed on and got to Yarla Kutjarra rest stop to stay the night. Through the afternoon we saw about eight camels, some on the road and some off to the side disappearing into the bushes. Happily, some stopped and watched us, but none came towards Frog on the bike.
There were already a few groups of people here including two couples travelling in convoy in their caravans, and a woman cycling around travelling the same direction as us at the moment, as well as a few groups who kept to themselves.
While we cooked a dinner and for the rest of the evening we enjoyed the company of the caravanners (Trevor and Karen, and Nick and Julie), the cyclist (Lynn) for a short while, and a young family who had arrived after the sun had gone down.
It was a good evening of chatting and telling stories.
We three were in bed by 8:30pm local time.
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