Day 8 - William Creek to Kulgera

Today we woke after a full nights rain to decide whether we'd make it out of William Creek or not. We had breaky, discussed our chances with our new friends and went over to the pub to see what the 'local' opinion was. As it was a Sunday, the lady advised us that they don't change the sign (road closure sign) until around 9.30am. Her words exactly where (at 8.30am) "so if you want to leave, you'd better nick off quickly", and that we did! A quick pack up, argument free AGAIN, a shower and we were on the road. As soon as we hit the dirt we knew it was going to be a rough run and that it was. It took us 3 hours to get out of William Creek in the wet, it was only a 2 hour trip in the dry. After about half hour in my anxiety was lowered although I hadn't seen our trailer disappear from behind us quite like it had a few times! There were a lot of fish tails and a moment where I had to yell out "POLE!" to Phil however having absolutely no control of the car, there wasn't much he could do about it. We did however clear it and I reckon only by millimeters. It was a long road out, slow and quite worrisome at times.... most times. By a little over half way through the car was doing 25ltrs/100km, we usually sit at around 13ltrs/100km! By the end of it we were doing 30ltrs/100km purely because of the additional dirt we were carrying. Here are the photos of what we looked like once we made it out! 

After we made it out we went to Coober Pedy to try and find a car wash but the only one we did find said that they were awaiting an electrician so it was out of order. We decided to kick on and make it as far as we could North to be able to make Alice Springs tomorrow. We got over the NT border and stayed at the "first and last Pub in NT", the Kulgera Roadhouse. 

We decided to get a room instead of set up a wet tent late at night. We went to the pub next door for dinner and met another lovely older couple Jan & Ray who sat with us at our table for dinner. We got chatting and found out they were from Tasmania and their son owned a sheetmetal and powdercoating business down there. Funnily enough, he has just brought a machine that FJP has and Phil had heard about this business through the salesman. We made new friends with them, had a few drinks and went off for an early bed. Jan reminded me a lot of my Granny which made me feel a bit closer to home but made me miss my Granny and Pop all the same. A trip to Bermagui is soon to be booked. 

After putting the heater on and going to bed, I woke again at 10pm to a stifling hot room. I decided to turn the heater down and finally fell back asleep at 2am. I woke again at 7am to Phil who was awake and apparently freezing. He told me I was trying to kill him with the cold however I was still on fire. Either I was still sick or he was getting sick... time will tell! We went to breakfast, included in our room rate, and met our friends Jan & Ray again. They gave us their email address and told us to visit them in Tassi and that they had plenty of room for us in their place. They are close to wineries and wineglass bay so I am pretty sure thats another holiday we'll be booking in soon.