This morning we got back on the dirt, as we wanted to try and get to Daly Waters. We knew how bad this part of Central Arnhem road was, and we took our time. We impressed the fellas working at the road works, had the idiots from the day before overtake us again with again no care, and we spied more buffalo and cows today. The road was pretty bad, (so bad, at one point our freezer door opened and the contents of the freezer started flying out, and as I went to deal with it, and Matt kept going, as fast as I was putting things back in, they were flying back out, and I managed to get hit in the head by flying frozen chicken, im not entirely convinced its dead eventually Matt did pull over so I could succeed in returning the food to the freezer and shut the door!) and we were all very relieved to get back on bitumen at Beswick. The art centre was open this time, and we were able to enjoy the art works and check out the gift store. Beswick had a town donkey that was free roaming and clearly well loved, as I spotted it go up to a local car (you can tell it’s a local car as there isn’t a straight panel, lights or exhaust!) and stick its head into the passenger windows. We said farewell to Simon and Elise, who were returning to Darwin. From Beswick we headed to Mataranka and stopped there for lunch. But as David and Brenda exited their Clipper, they came over to let us know that they thought something was wrong with ‘Bridget’, as she was what’s known as ‘crabbing’ or seemingly driving at an angle, (and not because Matt is a bad driver!) They looked underneath, and sure enough the rear right spring was broken and the diff slightly out of kilter. Not what we wanted to find, but grateful it was found before further damage could occur and that it wasn’t a problem on the dirt (but the damage likely occurred from the poor conditions of Central Arnhem Road).
The plans to try and reach Daly Waters went out the window, and we went and booked into the last 3 spots available at the Mataranka caravan park! God was good, as not only were there 3 spots left, but they all were perfect for our needs, and Matt was able to have a big, flat site, with power and the fellas were soon stuck into action. It took around 4 hours for them to pull out the broken spring, remove the broken parts and replace it with a spare spring that Ian had strapped underneath his Clipper, just in case! It wasn’t easy to get it back together again, but they managed it with some persuasion, and had it mounted in, just as it got dark. Meanwhile the ladies cleaned out the inside of the Clippers and removed some red dirt (I say only ‘some’ as you never, ever really get rid of it… speaking from experience). The ladies went down to Bitter Springs for one last time and did enjoy 2 laps down the warm, clear waters. It was very busy and fortunately no sign of crocs today (though Matt thought Brenda and Meredith were game to take me with them, being croc bait and all!)
We returned to feed the fellas and have dinner under the stars again. Despite the unexpected injury to ‘Bridget’, it was another good day, and goes to show how you never know what each day will bring, and the importance of thinking ahead and being prepared for all sorts of scenarios and break downs, when travelling in the outback on these kind of outback roads.
No comments:
Post a Comment