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Truck drivers are travelling more than 2,000 extra kilometres to refill shop shelves in remote Western Australian communities cut off by "once-in-a-lifetime" flooding.
Nathaniel Rosenberg manages the Warakurna Roadhouse, which usually has supplies trucked 1,726km up the Great Central Road from Perth once a week.
But water has inundated the lower section of the road, forcing trucks to take a massive detour from Perth to Port Augusta in South Australia, up the Stuart Highway towards Alice Springs, west to Yulara, and into the Ngaanyatjarra Lands from the east.
The journey now totals 3,995 kilometres — 2,269km more than usual.
"It's always the same whenever it rains out here. It always gets pretty crazy," Mr Rosenberg said.
"But this, in particular, got pretty hectic for the people from the west."
He said the detour had delayed some trucks and forced drivers to travel in pairs.
"We had to go from one truckie to two to do the trip efficiently," Mr Rosenberg said.
"One sleeps while one drives, and then switch over."
He said the roadhouse usually had two trucks from Perth each fortnight, one with dry goods and one with chilled, and a smaller one from Alice Springs which he said was more of a backup.
Western Roads Federation CEO Cam Dumesny said the industry had to apply for special permits to bring trucks with three trailers into South Australia.
He said given the extra distance the triples were more efficient, but waiting for permits added another layer of stress for operators.
He said the situation showed why plans to seal the Outback Way, which includes the Great Central Road, needed to be accelerated.
But despite the delays, Mr Rosenberg said the Warakurna Roadhouse had enough to get by.
"The general rule is to have a good stock beforehand because [these sorts of things] happen," he said.
"It's just your fresh goods, like your vegies and fresh milk.
"You might get it where it only has a couple of days left of life, or none at all."
Tourists unaware of floodwaters
Even though some parts of the Great Central Road have been closed for weeks, Mr Rosenberg said some tourists were oblivious.
He said a traveller came in from Yulara yesterday who planned on driving to Laverton in a two-wheel-drive vehicle. Mr Rosenberg showed the tourist a photo of a grader bogged down in the mud.
"This bloke was just rocking up in this little Suzuki thing," he said, laughing.
"I was like 'If I was you I'd probably just turn around. You don't want your car becoming a submarine.'"
But he said, generally, people were not taking risks, given how expensive and costly it could be to fix cars and get them out of bogs in such an isolated part of the world.
Laverton Shire president Patrick Hill told the ABC on Sunday it would take some time for the road to dry out and open.
"There's a lot of water over the road and it looks pretty grim for a while yet," he said.
Meanwhile, fresh supplies have finally reached Cosmo Newberry, 90km north of Laverton, which was cut off on all sides by floodwaters.
A helicopter carrying Department of Fire and Emergency Service personnel landed yesterday morning after a technical issue prevented them from doing so on Sunday, and distributed bread and other items.