OK, so that didn’t work out as planned. 2:15am, and the noise of the rain and the awning thrashing about makes us jump into action. Out, and throw the chairs under the van and put the awning away. The lighting is a lot closer than we’re comfortable with, but we get it done. At least the wind is nowhere near as bad as the night on the Plenty.
We get a fair bit of rain all night and the morning is nice and cool. It’s early but it feels like a bit of a sleep in, that is until we hear some strange noises at the front of the van, “is that someone trying to break into the tunnel boot?”, “Something doesn’t sound right”. Then bang! The van lurches forward and drops a bit. “What the hell”, we race outside. It seem with all the mud, the van has slipped down the leveling ramps and the jockey wheel has dropped off the timber block we had it sitting on. What a relief, everything is ok still.
We pack up in the mud and rain, not pleasant, but at least it’s nice and cool. We um and ah about another swim, if it was not for the mud we probably would have.
On the drive out we see a camper van parked up just short of a dry creek crossing. Not sure if the water was running last night or they just didn’t feel confident climbing out the other side. We cross and even in 4wd, we’re spinning wheels in the mud trying to pull the van out the other side.
We travel the 100 odd k’s back to Alice and get a few supplies, given our lack of a fridge and we head north.
I’ve gotta say there’s not a lot north of Alice for quite a while. Really just a number of small townships, and roadhouses to sell fuel, food and such to people on the road.
I can only wish 
Now they are rubbing it in 
We try to push onto a campground at Devils Marble. It seems nice enough and it would be good to explore the marbles in the cool of the morning. As the drive goes on, we see the car reach 42°. Roadside camping has lost some of its less appeal. We check wikicamps and the Devils Marbles Hotel 10k’s before runs a caravan park, has a pool and by all reports a restaurant that doesn’t belong in such a remote place. Anyway. Basic Caravan Park – Check, Pool – Wonderful and cool. Restaurant – Superb! It appears the place use to be called the Wauchope Hotel, but rebranded, I think it has done them the world of good. It’s one of the best steaks I’ve had in years. It’s odd, some of these roadside place should really just be condemned, then there are complete gems, like this.
