30th July Barkly Homestead

 Kms today  292                         Kms to date 8177

I didn't sleep much last night worrying about Morag.  I spoke to her after breakfast and she had been able to open up the boot and start the car using the portable battery we bought in Katherine.  She was heading off to Wyndham today.

I put the idea to her that we could meet in Timber Creek and come home together through SA, but that didn't interest her at all.  She is going to try and charge up the Traction HV battery and try and keep it charged by using Hybrid mode only.  Also she is going to get a new aux battery from Repco in Kununurra.

So I am going on to Barkly Homestead as planned and we'll talk tonight and make a final decision.  Just to add more stress, I had a note from my Ophthalmologist that I should try to make the August 18th appointment as it was critical for future treatment decisions.

I stopped to have a look at the Tennant Creek Overland Telegraph precinct but it was locked up.  These telegraph stations were needed a regular intervals along the Overland Telegraph to boost the signal. 

Tennant Creek Telegraph Station

After I checked in at Barkly Roadhouse and had a nap, I rode 50kms down the Tablelands Hwy.  I had decided early that I wouldn't go to Cape Crawford and ride the full 400kms on the Tablelands Hwy.  There was only Regular Unleaded fuel at Cape Crawford and I would need a fuel can to bring extra fuel and add an Octane Booster to avoid damaging the engine of the Kawasaki and it just wasn't worth it.  I passed two mobs of cattle, one each side of the unfenced road.  They seemed to keep a safe distance.  There were 3 cars with caravans and one truck - not much traffic.

 

The evening sun cast a shadow of my bike across the road

Straight and flat as far as the eye could see

There was one truck carrying much needed water tanks

When I got back to Barkly Homestead I sat down for dinner.  After starting I had to go back to my room for my phone and when I came back a couple were sitting at my table and they had cleared my meal away!  I got talking to them anyway.  They were Troy and Jeannie from McKay and he was working in the mining industry.  He seemed to think he was from the "real" Australia not like those people in Sydney and Melbourne with their funny ideas on climate change.  I pointed out politely that half of Australia's total population lived in Sydney and Melbourne and they were real Australian too.  We got onto the subject of electric cars and he was dismissive of the whole idea as being impractical " in my life time"  Jeannie seemed to think she would miss the roar of the V8 supercars and electric cars would be a poor substitute on the race track and I had some sympathy with that.  Anyway we continued our conversation in a civil manner and the mantra "not in my lifetime" seemed to be Troy's answer to any change I suggested.  Later I realised that they lived in George Christensen's electorate of Dawson and they were parroting his views on climate change and policies to avert ecological disaster.  Australian politics is in such a bad state that a few MP's that can convince their electorate that 1 and 1 equals 3 can hold up national policy initiatives that might just head off the climate disaster we are heading towards.  "Real" Australians are taking us over the cliff! 

Morag called again with more battery troubles at Lake Argyle.  She was helped out by a handyman at the campsite who found a way for her to jump start the car under the bonnet, rather than in the boot.  She is getting fed up with the car, but what can she do except struggle on to Perth where there is a Hyundai dealer authorised to work on its electric cars.