We arrived at the Vulkathunha-Gammon ranges national park Headquarter mid-afternoon. It is located on a former sheep station. All buildings are still intact and some are converted into a mini-museum. An aboriginal who used to work on the farm tells you it’s story through a well marked and documented circuit. It is quite interesting. But the main reason why people go there is for the facilities. You have showers and toilets for day trippers, and rooms available in the shearers’ quarters. We decided to stay there as it is the closest point of entry to go to lake Frome, one of the biggest salt lake of Australia.

At the end of the afternoon, after a good relaxing time, we happily found out that we would be the only people for the night. A big and well-equipped kitchen, a sofa and a TV for the two of us, what a treat it was! Eff made a fire in the big pit outside (after few days of camping, he had become an expert), in order for us to enjoy an outdoor glass of wine and dinner. It was nice and lovely, but sometimes modern world is calling, so we went back inside for a movie night.  It was Amelie on that day. It felt a bit unreal to be in the middle of nowhere watching a French movie, but it was a pleasant surprise.

We got up very early as Eff wanted to be at the lake for sunrise, and took the 40 kilometres unsealed road reserved for 4WD. The drive was smooth, even if the soft sand arriving around the lake made the car slide a bit. The lake is massive: 100 kilometres long and 40 kilometres wide. Our guide in Arkaroola had told us that this lake is also used every year by NASA to recalibrate their equipments onboard satellites, as it is suposed to be the largest white spot in the Southern hemisphere. We were therefore expecting a very white lake, already anticipating pictures similar to the famous ones you can take in the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. But we had yellow sand dunes and massive yellow dry lake instead. The white from the salt could be seen underneath a crusty layer. It was beautiful, but different from our expectations… We spent time walking around, feeling lost on this vast lake, enjoying the place for ourselves. We took our breakfast there and finally decided to drive back around 9am . That’s when things went wrong…

We were driving for less than five minutes when we got stuck in thick sand. Maybe because it got softer after couple hours of sun, maybe because we were not as fast, we will never know, but what was smooth on the way, got complicated on the way back. No big deal, we had been stuck before in Fraser Island and Western Australia and had managed to get out easily. With a piece of wood and a showel you can get your way around. We had a pan and a pot to replace the showel, and went to collect some stones to give a bit of grip under the wheel. We dug a bit and placed the stones, Eff started the engine and pressed the accelerator. And nothing… We tried again, forward and backward, me pushing and Eff behind the wheel. But still nothing. We were still stuck, and even deeper than before. We realised first that our car was not a 4WD at all, but was a AWD, you know those urban SUV that are good enough to go to the grocery store, but that you never drive elsewhere than on sealed roads. A good discussion with the car agency was straight away on the agenda. We also noticed that the under carriage was now stuck on the sand island between the two tire tracks. More efforts than planned were necessary to resolve the situation.

Warning: If you plan a roadtrip in the Australia outback, avoid Wicked Campers at all cost. Sure the cars are cheaper, but you get what you pay for. Make sure you have a showel and a UHF radio or satellite phones, and you’ll be good to go.

Remembering advices that we were given back in Ningaloo, Eff deflated the tires, got the jack and I went to get more stones. It was not that easy as the surroundings were only sand and bushes, and we had to walk quite far from the car to pick enough of them. The only place where we could find some was on a revegetation area. We might have picked important stones from there, but really had no other choice. With more digging, jacking, stoning, we were ready for another try, this time Eff pushing and me behind the wheel. First attempt was unsuccessful, so we had to redo the whole prep again. We had been stuck for 2 hours already, and we had not seen any car. We decided to try backwards only to go back to a more compact ground. And this time the car moved!! I was at full speed on the accelerator, Eff pushing hard, adrenaline was high, until I got stuck again, five metres further. We looked at each other in disbelief and despair.

We had to do it again and again, but no luck… This time the car didn’t want to move at all. Eff was fed up to jack up the car and upset to be in this tricky situation. We had been stuck for 4 hours already, there was absolutely no network, not even for emergency, not a single car in sight. We wanted remoteness, we had it, for the better and the worse. At some point, we saw a plane. There are many scenic flights in the region. We started jumping and waving to attract their attention, like desperate souls that we were, but no luck either. We also saw dust on a distance. Hoping for a car to come, Eff got the binoculars. Yess!! A car was coming closer, closer, closer, further, further, and gone. Nooooo…. Disappointed, tired and a bit desperate, it was time to take a break. Eff stayed outside, protected by the shade of the car, and I tried to relax inside. After an hour, we came to the same conclusion: only option was to walk back to the Headquarter to get some help. 40 kilometres, it would take us at least 10 hours. We were not excited to say the least…. We started to get ready for it, as Eff wanted to walk at night as much as possible to avoid the risk of dehydration due to the hot sun during the day. I was even less excited, and a bit worried of the cold.

I suggested that we tried one more time. And that’s when we went in full survival mode. Boosted by my suggestion, Eff jacked up the car again, pulled out poles from the revegetation area fence, and placed them on each side of the car between front and back tires. On my end, I filled up the tracks to even up the surface on the 50 metres behind the car, and went back inside, ready for ignition. Eff took his push position, we took a deep breath, and I pressed the accelerator. It was moving!! I kept my foot on the accelerator, driving backwards, Eff running and pushing on the front, and we were out of the sand!! Well… I kinda missed the turn, and went up on the side of the track, but as we were on a more compact sand, Eff managed to finish our exit. We were on adrenaline, so happy and relieved to have gotten to that point. We were not completely safe, as we had still to cross the sandy area. We studied the terrain. We had 300 metres of the same sandy road to drive before getting back to a secure ground, the risk of getting stuck again was very high. But the sides of the road were covered with a thin layer of crusty sand, which could give better grip to the car. The only issue was that we could not stay on one side only because of the vegetation, and we had to cross the road at some point. Eff found a spot where it could be manageable, and marked his itinerary with the poles. Very handy those poles, they were quite multi function! Once the full itinerary was clear, Eff went back to the car. And suddenly I saw him driving at full speed on one side, avoiding the bushes, the car sliding on the sand, turning at the mark, crossing the track, jumping on the other side, and disappearing in the distance. The car was stopped, but I didn’t know if he had made it or not. And it turned out he had! We were safe, what a good feeling!!! We left massive tracks along the revegetation area. We were sorry for it, and at the same time not so much… We put the poles back near their holes, and headed back to the Headquarter. The 40 kilometres drive was quite tense, as we only manage to breathe once arrived at destination. With all this, we were stuck for 7 hours. No one around, no phone, it could have turned bad. It taught us a very good lesson for the future, and was the prefect rehearsal for our upcoming roadtrip in Africa.

We stayed unexpectedly another night at the Shearer’ Quarters, where we were again on our own. We took back our room, had dinner, and watched a movie. We were never so happy to watch Casino Royale! But it was time for a well-deserved sleep. Tomorrow is another day.

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