"it's not five stars you know"

... The words from the anemic, chain smoking, neck collar wearing, cross eyed yokel that checked us in. What an amazing reception. Such confidence he has in his establishment.

Today was uneventful, 530KM with at least 6 hours driving. I'm sure most people (myself included) have no appreciation of quite how big our country is! At the moment, in a state of exhaustion, I'm not sure I could be bothered doing the whole Cameron corner thing. I reach this mental point where if I can't drive it in one day, then I'm a reallyyyyy long way from home. It's 13+ hours from here to Cameron corner (653KM), and then 19+ hours driving back home (1390KM). It's just too overwhelming to consider right now, and bad thinking about these things when tired is a waste of energy and spirits.

By my calculations, it would be two days driving to Cameron Corner, then three driving home. Assuming I leave here effectively Thursday morning, I would only just have enough time to make it back as I have to be in Canberra 9am on Tuesday the 24th for another round of vaccinations. I'm not sure if that's the right mentality to be traveling with. Ideally, I'd like to finish afternoon Wednesday and get a couple of hundred kilometers behind me to lift my spirits and create a bit of time buffer, but that is being pretty optimistic. 

How easy it rolls off the tongue "three days driving", it's not that easy in practice. I find driving exhausting and I don't know how some people can responsibly drive much longer. Adventure is the journey, not the destination, but when working with a time pressure, it might as well be work. I'd feel guilty stopping for photographs or video. Even when I do stop, it's not relaxing. I spent my breakfast break reinstalling the windscreen washer bottle, and last night cooking dinner with minutes before dark. 

I don't say this to worry anyone, but I also find driving dangerous in nature. Speed and fatigue are just factors which multiply the inherit likelihood of making a mistake. Mistakes could be a cats-eye you hit when cutting a corner, an animal crossing or worse!. But its a risk so many take every day! And you're just as likely to be effected by someone else's mistake even if you are super careful.

A huge part of me wants to just get takeaway and head off into the night, homeward bound, but I have a job to do tomorrow. I've done well not to eat takeaway at any point. I have such yummy food in the car but not enough time to stop and enjoy it. Lunch today was 6 slices of bakers delight sesame seed bread, washed down with water. When I ran out of water, I pulled over, quickly jumped in the back, pumped some more, jumped back into the drivers seat and took off fearing that the caravan I overtook about 30km earlier would catch me. It's no problem overtaking, it's just kind of embarrassing. Like a tortes and the hare deal. I'm sure that is spelt wrong!

I'm not sure if I'm meant to have dinner with this volunteer rep or not, shes in the room next to mine but I don't want to go knocking as I am feeling particularly selfish with my time, and would rather cook something from my car and watch tv. Or maybe I do want to go, but alone... Ugh decisions. I might post more later.