Charging overnight at the Kulgera pub, in central Australia

Kulgera is the first roadhouse over the border into the Northern Territory. After a long day up the Stuart Highway we rolled in nearly flat.

We fronted up to "reception" at the pub, grabbed the keys to our room — a double with an ensuite (now listed at $145 a night) — and settled in. Now to find some charging. PlugShare listed a three-phase outlet at the shower block that I never managed to find. The room had a power point on its outside wall that might have done the job. In the end I walked back into reception and asked to hire a powered camp site, just so the car had somewhere to plug in.

We spent the evening in the pub. The ceiling is a canopy of donated bras and hats. A cat patrolled the bar like it owned the place, and a dog worked the room by the stone fireplace. Every domestic animal in the area seemed to find Fran, as usual. Dinner came off a menu that stretched to camel burgers — we settled for the chicken parma, and it filled the plate.

We thought we were the pioneers out here, until we met the European cyclist parked out front. He was pedalling from Darwin to Adelaide, sleeping across the road in the desert in his tent to save money — fair enough, given how many nights the ride would take. He had already crossed plenty of other countries. His loaded bike flew Italian and Swedish flags: a slower way over the outback than ours.