Day 25 – Drysdale Station, Mitchell Plateau

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( ASo the plan I had come up with during the night was to ring the only mechanic in the Kimberleys (Over the Range Tyre and Mechanical) and hope they aren’t the same outfit Chevy Chase used in Vacation. Then call NRMA and get them to authorise repairs and tell them about the sat phone bill they had.



No one answered at 7am at the mechanic probably because there was no need to start so early because not many people were dropping their cars off for a service before work.



The first Greg came sauntering across to see how we were, he had also waited for us last night Emu Export Lager in hand to make sure we made it. He thought the station might have some spare wheel studs and we could use some wheel nuts off the other wheels. So we went over to see Otto an older German guy (Apparently shot down whilst hopelessly off course during WWII) who showed us a bucket of wheel studs and said do your worst (Greg’s other idea was to forage through the Landcruiser wrecked and torched about a 3 ks from the station presumably by some aboriginal youths on a night out, but this first idea seemed better. We found two studs (which got us to 5, 1 of which was a little bent). So we set to work and had the car pretty much fixed by 10am. We did have to take a wheel nut from every wheel so whilst 2 out of 5 ain’t good we decided in the words of Meatloaf that 4 out of 5 ain’t bad. While Greg and I had been rolling around in the dust (fixing the tyre), Becs had packed up so we were on our way to Mitchell Plateau by 11am. I’d organised to pay for Greg’s dinner (and 2 Emu Export Lagers) at the sumptuous Drysdale Station buffet.



Obviously when you have less wheel nuts on each wheel than the manufacturer’s recommended number it makes you slightly nervous, compounded by the fact the corrugations on the way to Mitchell Plateau made the Kalumburu Road corrugations look like a super highway.



For this trip I had specifically fitted a snorkel (and flippers) to the Landcruiser for the King Edward River crossing. It was deep but I was expecting water over the bonnet, we negotiated it easily. The 175ks into Mitchell Plateau took us 5.5 hours, but we made it in the light and with all four wheels. (I did stop every ten ks to check them!!

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