We are Jolly Swagmen

We are Jolly Swagmen.

Jolly hipster swagmen, probably. This thought occurred to me as Mum passed me my sandwich in the car, somewhere between Brisbane and Roma. Squashed in between thick slices of organic sourdough from the the trendy Sourced Grocer in Brisbane were slices of ham, cheese, tomato, traditional organic pesto (also from the Sourced Grocer) and baby spinach.

I chowed into this deliciousness, one hand on the wheel, singing along to country blues playlists. This we washed down with a steaming cup of Assam tea.

Swagman life complete.

Our mate Corolla is doing great! She gets buffeted around a bit by the road trains that whizz past us on the highway. The smell of livestock is everywhere on the Warrego highway…half the trucks that pass us are full of stock, mostly cattle. Apparently the drought out here is really bad so most small farmers are selling for really cheap.

Last night we stayed in Roma Big Rig Caravan Park, which was chockers. We’re the exception to the rule out here – it’s us and half of Brisbane’s retirees, who’re all pulling caravans in Land Cruisers.

This morning we hit the road early. We had to find a place to fill up the gas bottle, fill up the car and get to Carnarvon Park in time to steak out a swag spot and do a walk.

So we find the gas refill joint no worries. Mum gets chatting to the lady who owns the business and is told that the best coffee in town is just down the road at a place called The Tasting Co.

No further questions needed… we head to this caf, get ourselves delicious (really, it was) 3/4 Flat Whites and Long Blacks, pile into the car with our full gas bottle, and head out onto the open road.

In our excitement over real coffee and a full gas bottle, we’d forgotten to fill up old mate Corolla with fuel. She’s only got a quarter of a tank left and we have about 100kms to the next town.

Anyway, we decide to risk it and keep going. Worst case scenario is we have to funnel some fuel out of someone else’s car, or befriend a station manager and get some from them.

Long and short of it is, we made it to Carnarvon National Park, pulling into a servo on Empty, with that little orange light bleeping at us. Classic.