7 May 2012

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This morning we headed out to the stunning Kalbarri National Park. There was about a 27 km stretch of dirt road before we hit some of the attractions so we took it nice and slow as the old van isn't as durable as some of the 4WDs we see around the traps.

I never expected to see such spectacular surroundings until we headed up to the Kimberley. The views we had out over the gorges and the rest of the Park were unlike anything I had seen before. I have posted the photos for all to see and I will let them do the talking.

We had planned to see two more attractions on the way out when disaster struck. I had noticed the windscreen wipers were moving slower than usual and at the moment I tried to turn on our radio I realised that the van had lost all power and we limped to a halt. We were out of phone range and due to the loss of all power the CB radio was of no use.

Fortunately we flagged down the first 4WD we saw passing by and to our relief we were able to be towed back to the main road. A second vehicle kindly stopped to lend assistance and went ahead to alert the ranger who was waiting to give us a lift back to town.

We were dropped off at the local service centre and the omen could not have been worse; there were three vans just like ours in the 'car graveyard'. The owner and operator was very helpful though and took us with him in the tow truck to go and get the van. The likelihood is that the alternator had died and fingers crossed there are not going to be any other nasties.

The service centre also sorted us out with a car rental as it was going to be an overnight job to fix the van. We managed to check into a room at a local caravan park which was a welcome relief after a long and stressful day.

We couldn't let the kindness of the people who towed us out of the National Park go unrewarded so just before tea we located them at their caravan park and dropped off a six-pack. Let's hope we can get back on the road tomorrow and that the van doesn't go by way of the dodo!

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