Butchers Track-Expedition Dust day 11

Waking up in the outback for the first time sure was a special feeling! I was actually woken by what I’m calling a didgey bird. If anyone reading knows what it’s called I would love to know! It’s a beautiful sound but almost like the sound effects you would hear with a UFO in a movie, It’s like a digital recording.

I packed up my gear and started riding along on what was once the original Butchers track. I weaved my way left and right around all the trees that had taken over. A few hours into the day I spotted a kangaroo in the distance, as I got closer it got up and jumped away. It was quite a large one, I couldn’t believe how far it could jump! It was quite noisy riding over the dead branch’s and pushing through the low scrub so I’m not surprised I haven’t seen more wildlife. At points the only reason I knew I was going the right way was the rusty fuel containers or historic glass bottles that were everywhere along the edges.

At about midday I hit a fence line and took sharp right turn, I knew that I was now headed directly towards the new Butchers track but between me and it was roughly 15km of dry long grass that had grown over the trail! I hated riding though it because I couldn’t see the ground and I felt like my chances of disturbing a snake are much higher when I can’t see the ground. The last 5km was extra overgrown and was slow going, but hitting the new Butchers track made it seem worthwhile.

The new track is wide and has fresh vehicle tracks all over it! At this point I knew I was roughly 110km from the next road so I put my headphones in and started listening to a podcast. I cruised along the sandy/dusty road until I felt hungry and then stopped to eat. I had dates dipped in peanut butter, while I was eating I spotted a few large ants, I gave each of them a tiny bit of date to take home to there colonies. Just before I continued I wrote BE HAPPY in the sand on the road side.

The wind had picked up as it was the late afternoon, the wind cooled me down and made the flys lives a little harder (much to my relief). At 1600 hours a white truck/camper pulled up next to me. The couple were so kind, they offered me water and made sure I didn’t need anything else we chatted for a few minutes and they continued onto Murchison.

I pulled off the road  just after 5:30 and set up my camp! Dinner tonight was some noodles and a Pea and mint plant based meal and a large handful of pork crackling. The bats out here are amazing. If turn on my little Goal Zero crush light and face it up all the bugs come in and the the bats start going crazy making high pitched clicking sounds and eating so many bugs. I love it out here!