We had Corn Fritters for breakfast – yum! and then we were off and racing.  I need to mention again how shocking Battle Camp Road is.  It was really really bad – slow going!!  We stopped at Musgrave Roadhouse for the guys to fuel up (again – we still didn’t need to).  Glen and I got icecreams – it feels like such a treat!

Garry needs to have medical attention for his toothache.  We stopped in Coen, but the nurse was on lunch.  We decide to check out The Bend Camping Site.  We got there and we were not impressed.  The toilet stank!  The campsites were not level and the site was actually on the main road.  Not so good for the light sleeper – ie me.  We decided that we would have some lunch and Garry and Ristan would go back into Coen to wait for the nurse to come back to the Medical Centre.  We had just finished lunch and were about to head into Coen to see how things were going when Garry and Ristan turned up.  The nurse had given Garry the drugs he needed without a charge.  They gave a donation to the Royal Flying Doctor’s Service instead.

We decided that we would continue on to Archer River Roadhouse as they had Amenities – including a hot shower!!  We got to Archer River Roadhouse at about 2pm and we were the first campers there.  We got the pick of the campsites and got the flatest bit and all of us made camp around a campfire.   A winnebago parked next to our car and the guy got out and had a good chat with us and even gave us some crap about chewing up the roads (bloody 4wders as he said).

On the menu for dinner was Rib Eye Steak with Mushroom Sauce, Deb and Peas & Corn.  We had Apple Crumble for dessert.  I cooked my first Camp Oven Bread and it turned out fantastically.  Yum Yum fresh bread.

As the evening wore on, more and more campers were setting up camp.  Soon, we were in the middle of a huge nest of campers.  We went to bed and could still hear people pulling in.  The attendant when booking in told us that the generators would turn off at 10pm.  At midnight it was still going and we had bogans come to our fire in the middle of our camp and they made noise and yelling until 2am.  We had tried several times to ask them to be quieter, but alas, they were bogans (bevans, wankers, f*cktards, morons etc) and didn’t care who they annoyed.  WE WERE NOT HAPPY!!!

When they bogans (finally) went to bed, the locals (after drinking) went balistic.  Glen went to the men’s facilities and saw two Aboriginal males having a full on blue.  Glen said one guy was speaking english and the other was speaking a different language.  When we drove through the Archer River Crossing, we saw where the locals had made camp and there were beer cans and other mixer cans everywhere.  It was like a trash site.  I feel sorry for whoever has to clean that up.   We spoke to some other people futher up the Cape and they stayed the same night as us.  They saw a local lady that had been bashed to a pulp and she was in the middle of the bridge.  They went and found help for her.   What can we do to stop this?!?!

Advice for all future people heading up the Cape – DON’T STAY IN ROADHOUSES – IT ATTRACTS BOGANS!!

Injuries & Ouchies:

All – No sleep and cranky!!