Finally on the Anne Beadell Highway.
What a piece of remote track to call a highway, it’s good that Len Beadell had a sense of humour. Everything I had read and heard about the Anne Beadell Highway was quite true. It was rough, corrugated and in our case wet and muddy. But the one thing that most articles, forgot to mention was the sheer beauty of it. The diverse flora, the red sand and the rocky outcrops. It took us ten days to do the crossing to Laverton, which gave us plenty of time to enjoy our fantastic surroundings. It rained for most of the trip across the Highway but it added another dimension to it.
My wife Rosemary finally got addicted to taking photos when we saw a number of camels on the track. She loved photographing and video recording them. They appeared every few days, and my wife couldn’t help taking videos and still shots of camels. I think I have the best collection of CAMELS BACKSIDES on record, as most times the camels were running down the track in front of us. We travelled for a full there days before we saw any other vehicles. The usual quick stop hello, “ where do you come from how’s the weather and where are you heading to”. And off they went on their merry way, a group of ten vehicles from the Perth Landrover club.
Heavy going wet sand and mud.
The next was a gentleman traveling on his own doing the whole length of the Anne Beadell from Laverton to Copper Pedy.. He had a bit of misfortune befall him, he was camped at Vokes Hill Junction when he had battery problems. Cooked his battery and had to wait for a new one to arrive from Laverton. I gather another vehicle going in that direction organised it for him. But he told us it cost him $4000.00 to get it brought to him. It can get vey expensive when things go wrong in remote locations.
What I enjoyed was the peacefulness and the camping. I took a few photos, but I think I was just settling in and getting used to the travel. Also the weather conditions setting up and breaking camp in the rain. If not rain everything was soaked with heavy dew. But what an experience as it prepared us well for the later part of the trip.
Rosemary having a cuppa in the rain
Everything survived well, we travelled at a pace that suited the conditions and adjusted tyre pressure accordingly. All of this made a great difference to our comfort and things not rattling apart on car and camper trailer. Also months of preparation to travel across the Anne Beadell had payed off.
The reason for doing the trip in the first place was that myself and Rosemary have read most of Len’s books. And you can only admire him and his road crew for the work that they carried out for almost a period of ten years. If we think the track is rough spare a thought for Len he didn’t even have a track to drive on. It would have been lumps of spinifex and tree stumps, until his road crew came along with dozer and grader.
Fantastic designs in the red sand created by the spinifex grass.
