Days 57-59 Repairs in Kununurra

---

The fridge we inherited when we bought the Cruiser had always been quite noisy. At night, we could hear it switch on and off as we slept upstairs.

Still, it was disappointing to have to abort the trip down the GRR and return to Kununurra. Further bad luck was to follow because when we got to the camping store, they had just sold the cheaper model of the fridge size that we needed and we were faced with choosing just the one remaining (expensive) model. So be it. As I was paying for the fridge, someone came past and knocked my cap off my head! I turned around and there was Neville (the sparky saviour from ElQ) and his partner, Lorne. What a surprise!

Of course, Neville was quick to offer us his help with the installation which we readily agreed to. They went off to finish their shopping while we headed to Town Caravan Park to remove the old Engel and get ready to install the new one. Neville and Lorne arrived a short time later and Neville and I finished off the installation (wiring and padding with carpet squares) and then celebrated with a cold beer from Neville's Beer Engel. Hopefully, Neville can get the old Engel to work again.

Georgi loves the new Engel cos it has a little light inside so you can find something easily at night.

I love the new Engel cos it is very quiet.

While we were camped at Town Caravan Park, we also noticed that we had a broken headlight. This was much cheaper to fix, but we had to source a non-genuine light because the Toyota ones were very expensive. The screws holding the headlight surround were all rusted so we had to hunt down more from the local panel beater / wrecker. Then we had to wait until Monday for Darryl at Wild West Car Care to finish off the job. Of course, a broken headlight is always possible when travelling along gravel roads (with large stones and rocks) but we do think the idiot who passed us and then drove on at a very high speed was probably the likely culprit. He must have known that the bitumen was only another 5 kilometres away.

With our enforced confinement at Kununurra, we had a chance to rethink the GRR plan. Previously, we had thought that we would drive the entire 700 kilometres of the Gibb PLUS take the side trip of 500 plus kilometres return to Mitchell Plateau and Falls and then on to Kalumburu (an aboriginal community on the coast). However, the poor wet season, coupled with fires on the Mitchell Plateau suggested to us that the drive to Mitchell Falls might be somewhat less than we were hoping for. Neither of us were happy with that plan so a new strategy was required.

A new plan was devised where we would now drive down the highway to Fitzroy Crossing and then pick up Tunnel Creek and Windjana Gorge National Park before heading up the GRR to Mornington. It would be a flexible plan and might change as circumstances dictated.

---