Prenti Downs-Expedition Dust day 31

I woke up as the light started changing, I could hear a pack of dogs howling close by so I started howling back. I opened the tent door hoping to catch glimpse of them, but never did. The moon was beginning to set as I got up to stoke up the fire for a hot breakfast, the embers were still hot from last night so geting it going was no problem at all. Dylan makes his breakfast the night before so all he has to do is eat it but I like the process of making mine in the mornings. We packed up all our gear and set off towards Prenti Downs station where we planned to spend the night.

As expected Dylan powered off ahead and I just started spinning at my usual speed. It wasnt long until the track got sandy and I had to ride cross country through the bush to avoid the deep sand. We followed the rough trail for 12km, it then poped out onto Prenti Downs road. Without the cover of the bush the wind was blowing in full force, it was the strongest its been so far.

The land has changed again and the shape of sand dunes under the scrub is becoming more noticeable, every time you get to the crest of a dune on this road the sand gets deeper. We passed a few bores, wells and windmills, there was even a patch of some kind of water mellons. When I filled up my fluids this morning I worked out I was down to my last 10L of water. At this point I normally would have stopped at the nearest water source to refill my bladders. Knowing we would soon be at the Prenti downs homestead I decided the slightly lighter bikes were probably making life a little easier for the both of us.

We stopped for lunch at 12 under the shade of a small gum tree. I will run out of peanut butter before Dylan and I arrive in the next town with a shop, that will be Warburton. Fingers crossed they have peanut butter. After lunch we only rode for 1 1/2 hours and then reached the western border of Prenti downs station. Just before we pulled off the road at the homestead we passed a big old broken down white truck. It made me wonder if it would just be there until the earth consumed it.

As we rode down the dusty driveway a young guy called Jack Carmody came out to greet us, the first thing he said was “are you crazy, long ride..?” my reply is always “perfectly crazy”. I shook his hand and went to meet Tim and Louise Carmody who are the lovely couple who a friend had organised for us to meet. Tim was woking on a big old truck and Louise had just finished making a beef stew for lunch. We were kindly welcomed with a big bowl and an ice cold glass of water, something thats hard to find unless your drinking your water at 2am. It was all so overwelmingy tasty. After our cheeky second lunch Louise showed us to our rooms. I got strait into plugging in all my electronics and backing up my memory cards before putting a load of washing on and trying to remove some of the red dirt from my skin.

In the evening we had a few drinks with the family and the guests who are staying (from the Taranaki, back home in NZ). We shared stories of adventures and talked about the feral camel problem until the hot meal that Louise had crafted was ready, it was amazing! Chicken and pasta, followed by a sweet apple pudding with cream. My belly and tastebuds were having a good time!

It was an aboslute treat to meet the Carmody family they are definitely good people! Just when I thought my night couldn’t get any better I realised I could call Ngaio on the phone, she makes me the happiest man on earth so it was a very good day.

We are really in the middle of everywhere now!