Day 27 | Jerramungup Road rest area: Hey, that's a different rest area on successive nights

71 km | zzOz total: 1,317 km

Roadside rest areas haven’t been a big part of my camping experience.

Australia has vast numbers of them, along highways and even many smaller roads, of an assorted quality, so drivers travelling long distances can stop and have, err, a rest.

Some are flash with undercover tables, toilets, rubbish bins, well off the road. In the Northern Territory they can have a water tank, usually with a sign saying to avoid drinking the water. Some have No Camping signs but for the majority it’s quite legal to spend the night, and hence you can often share with caravans parked to avoid the caravan park fees, up to $30 a night. These official roadside rest areas are always free.

I don’t like them much because they can be dirty, people dump rubbish or just dump, leaving the toilet paper blowing in the wind. Up north, in the Dry Season, there’s no rain to, umm, flush after old blokes relieve themselves from the door of their caravan, night after night. Yes, the rest areas can, how do I put this, smell, that might be OK if you perch above it all in your caravan, but putting up a tent, getting down and dirty, no, I’m outta there.

But it just so happens I’ve stopped on consecutive nights. At the lookout rest area last night and another, good off the road, one tonight. No problems with flushing at the moment, actually we could do with turning that feature off.

Out here, mid-winter, not much traffic, they are a reasonable option. It’s mostly fenced farmland here and the alternative camping spots require some lateral thinking.

The state government recently attempted to ban camping in the rest areas but the police persuaded the authorities it was a road safety issue. Too many drivers falling asleep on those long drives.

Well, I might fall asleep myself.

Goodnight.