Batton Hill and the back of beyond

Last night we made it to Batton Hill where we were treated to a real indigenous camp site.

Welcomed by our hosts Wayne and Joan, son of Lindsay, and their two children Sachua a little girl of two years of age and her older brother by one year! Tobias

We followed Wayne (except for Peter K and Lee) out of the property and onto the Batton Hill track. This track at 9:50am is only 25° when we came across a whole herd of cattle with their calves at their waterhole which was beside the track, a line we are following via Mud Maps an app that Peter has downloaded and researched.

Each day brings a new texture, and today we find ourselves on two shaley mountain ridges. We climed both of these and particularly liked the climb to the top on the second one. Tim reversed up the mountain top until we were on a 35-40° angle on the hill - parking on there was amazingly challenging and to get out of the car I was particularly scared. Then we took a few pictures from the base and then the real challenge started - climbing to the top of the ridge. I am proud to say that I did stop half way but then saw everyone up there and took a deep breath and decided to go all the way up. And you've got it - I made it to the top - shale everywhere and my fear of heights overcome for today!

We have been following tracks to Tarlton Station and these tracks are difficult not only terrain wise but they are unmarked and we are trusting Peter and Dave who are following GPS signals and could never follow this on a paper map. Needless to say we found a third hill and just had to go up - in reverse to save the water - then down the steepest hill - but that I am sure it was 45° this time but Tim is proud of the car no doubt.

It is now midday and 31° and we are during along a dried river bed/creek that is aledgedly a graded road as we were told by Wayne last night. So we all get going again to only find ourselves needing to go in and out of the creek bed road! We get to the next one and Tim and Dave  both had wheel lifts happening just to get back in. We all get in and wait until each car can get through even Louise who is driving Wyndy's got through - impressive driving with heaps of flex happening! All of a sudden we find our selves at the Southern Cross wind mill which would pump water for the stock yards but there are so many dead cows that it is quite confronting. This land is so arid and dry - red and browns with black tree truncks. A very hard and harsh lied to live I'd say! Peter K went in the water tank with Robyn and I thinking only of disentry, eye and ear infections and other serious health issues. Then Lee makes his way to the top of the wind mill with the blades going awfully close to his head - report headlines would not be favourable at this point of the trip! All well but definitely not having morning tea today and might have to reconsider my feelings about the beef industry, RSPCA and vegetarianism. All Tim can do is think about ways to cook other animals such as Turkey in the smoker back at the Batton Hill camp base.

So off we go again making our own tracks now to find these mountains, we seem to be getting close when all of a sudden we come to a holt to discover that Peter K has a flat. We couldn't get his spare out so Lee kindly offerd his spare. So we get over that one to only get a little way further when Lee (probably egged on by Tim's enthusiasm) went over another small tree (same as Peter) and got an instant flat tyre. So we decided to climb the mountain (Peter's dream) first and what a view it was.

So we get back to Lee's car who had loaned his spare wheel to Peter, then we got Peters spare from underneath his car and put it on Lees car. But the wheel nuts wer not tightened properly and they damaged the rim. So we had to take that rim off, remove the tyre then put it on another rim. Then we do a tyre change on his rim. It was interesting watching the men all work together and to see the sheer way that they nicely worked together and their combined knowledge come together was a real bonding moment of camaraderie. While all of this was happening the girls could do nothing more than chat about things and I am really loving getting to know each and every one of the 5 other ladies.

We are making it back to Jervois and it is about 73km till we fuel up and pull up for the night. It has been a big day and full of issues with tyres and now Peter K has has a blockage in the fuel system as there is some debris in his tank. No worry for him as he sped off at 100-110km/hour while we carefully traversed the dirt road - Plenty Highway - at a sensible and consistent speed of 80-85km/hour looking out for Lee behind us and keeping in radio contact with Peter W and Gary. We finally made it out of the Tarlton Range to Jervois where we can get fuel and get out of the car.

Animals sighted

1 lizard

1 kangaroo

Heaps of dead cows 

Over 40 termite mounds

A herd of cattle

Food ideas

Great to have cheese and biscuits in the car

Love the Waeco mini fridge inside the car

Premade wraps are a champion set up