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We are re-stocked and we have added a couple of accoutrements to the package, like a insulation cover for the fridge and an extra chair for Brooksie who is now joining us in Broome. Personally I couldn’t see any reason why he couldn’t stand for a week. The beauty of the Stuart Highway is you can do 130kph, the bad news it is filled with vans. Gray nomads too scared to hit the dirt clogging up the main arterial road between South Australia and Darwin driving at 80kph. The only issue with the speed limit is that with about 20 foot of stuff on the roof the fuel consumption goes through the dial.
I’d filled up the Landcruiser at a United outlet in Darwin because I needed an ATM and I thought while I’m here……. This is almost as bad as the Asian barista rule, the no name fuel station rule. As we neared Katherine the Fuel Filter Maintenance light came on. I should have known, who trusts as business that comes up as Rajesh Indira Singh Pty Ltd. It’s probably like parallel imported beer but more complicated. When you read about remote travel a lot of people
recommend taking a spare fuel filter, but my days of mucking around with engines are long gone. This is where Toyota comes in. Dropped into the local dealer, Sapphire at the reception desk made us a capucinno, Sky told us about her trip from Newcastle to Katherine where she’s been stranded for 5 months trying to find someone to fix her Jeep and before you know it (and after paying $150) we are back on the road. I stopped in at the BP to top up the tank and dilute the Indonesian diesel.
We stop for lunch at a rest stop where it looks like a couple of blokes are living in their caravans and drop into the Victoria Roadhouse where the owner has a new wife.
We hit the turn off to Gregory National Park and it is getting close to dusk which is not my perfect timing for arriving at a campsite. First every animal in the world decides to cross the road at dusk and secondly it means setting up in the dark. We arrive at the campground which is pleasant enough except there are 3 caravans. The road is a
little rough but not too bad. Now Adam and I have driven about 1500 kms on some terrible roads, but when it comes to flat tyres Becs is the albatross. “can you hear that noise?”. “Fuck” I say. There is nothing worse than turning up at a campsite at dusk and hearing air escaping from a tyre. From the previous trip I have become an expert on tyre changing. So given that is hardly a challenge now I decided to repair the puncture as well.
You may recall the Chinese air compressor from Repco which blew a fuse at Fraser Island. Well it’s up and running with a new fuse. Professional 4WD folk have expensive air compressors which inflate a tyre in a nanosecond, whereas the Chinese air compressor tends to work on the basis of slow and steady. So after about half an hour of high pitched Chinese air compressor noise one of our neighbours decides to come over. “What are you guys up to?”. Channelling Michael Keaton from Mr Mom I spat on the ground and say “Yeh got a flat on the way in, changed the tyre and I’ve just repaired it so I want to see if it holds. This Chinese air compressor takes a while, but it certainly adds the ambiance!” He ran his finger over my puncture repair. I didn’t tell him I’d spat on it profusely. He invited us over for a beer around their fire so we could compare notes on puncture repairs, tyre inflation and tyre pressures generally. We declined. They were vanners afterall!
I had a couple of lovely pork cutlets in the bottom of the fridge which Adam and I hadn’t eaten. Only about 3 weeks old. Now Becs gets a bit fussy when it comes to meat. My view is that the older it is, the more you cook it. Even I admit that there was a slight whiff of chicken about it. Cutlets in the bin and sausages instead.
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