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Published: October 2nd 2012
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We rose early to catch the sunrise on the Devil’s Marbles, taking photos as we had breakfast. This resulted in an early departure (7:15), with a destination for Lake Woods as it had been highly recommended. We arrived in Tennent Creak at 9:30am and had a break as we accessed the internet and emails. While doing so we plugged the notebook into the 12v system for the first time.
At our mid-morning break (where we brew REAL coffee) we found the gas ignition would not work. We soon realised that our whole 12v system in the caravan was dead, and to our horror we discovered that this meant that we no longer had any refrigeration. Our freezer was full of that wonderful rump steak and the day was going to be 40C+!
We had some difficult choices to make. At Elliot we tried to ring Adventura for advice but with no mobile coverage Greg had to buy a phone card to use the public phone. The $5 credit burned very fast and after discussion we knew we needed the assistance of an auto electrician. Not easily found in the outback, so it was goodbye Lake Woods as we pushed
on to Katherine doing two days travel in one.
On the way we could not believe the amount of country that had been burned recently. It seemed most of the days 760km was through burnt out areas.
As our fridge was warming in the 40C heat we knew we had to provide an alternative solution if we were to save its contents. The Engel car fridge was capable of acting as a freezer but we would need an eski to store the fridge contents. “Camps Australia Wide V6”, the caravaner’s bible was used to identify possible places to buy an eski.
We pushed on to Mataranka hoping to get there by 5pm as it seemed like a candidate. We arrived at 10 min past to find a closed sign. But the door was not locked so we went in and found the proprietor chatting to a local. We found our very basic eski, but as the till had already been closed the price was discounted to whole dollars.
Passing through one ‘town’ we noted the caravan park and associated hotel had been burnt out recently. Too bad if it had been your chosen destination from the
caravaner’s bible.
At Katherine we needed 240v to power the car fridge overnight but we had no booking and no idea where the caravan parks were. At 6:30 it was a serious risk any reception would already be closed. Finding no caravan park advertising, we used the local information map and rang a likely contender, “Shady Lane”. The proprietor said that he would stay open for us, and when we checked in provided the contact number for an auto electrician who would come to us!
The following morning Neil arrived after fixing the school bus headlights, and proceeded to solve our problems. Boy could he talk! However with a bit of toing and froing with Adventura the problem was solved and we were set to go again. Much to our surprise the bill turned out to be about a third of what we had expected. Greg said, “Just listening to him was part of the payment!” We were very relieved to have refrigeration and lighting again.
We finally set off for Katherine Gorge (Nitmiluk National Park) where we were due to meet Joan,s sister Ali that evening.
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Fiona
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Drama
This seems like the most drama you have had so far on this journey. Really happy it all worked out - question - does that mean no more note book plug in for the rest of the trip.