We now have a Kombi! Part 3 (OJG)
Hi everyone, last and final part I promise!
So after a less then pleasant night's sleep in the Kombi (smartass forgot to pack a blanket and had to wrap himself up in every available piece of clothing), I got up at 6:30am with a mission, to get back to Perth in this one day! It would be tough, as yet I had no available tunes as I needed one more cable to connect the iPod to the stereo, and funnily enough there isn't much call for radio stations in the middle of nowhere. Also, I wasn't sure how well Charlie would perform, and what sort of speed he would settle on for the journey, or how far I could really get on a tank.
So off we went, with a beautiful sunrise to the left, we started our mega journey South. I stopped off at several small petrol stations or as they like to call them "Roadhouses". And surprisingly most of them serve hot food of some kind or another... i.e. Some had a small heated glass area with hot pies and hot sausage rolls (which were delicious) and others had full size restaurants (no time for that this time).
I got to Carnarvon by 9:45 and decided a quick break would be good which would also allow me to look for one of these iPod cables. I saw a Woolworths (which only do food) and went round their car-park looking for an easy space. Sure enough I see another Kombi and head right for it! The owners were in the process of getting ready for a day out, so we all stopped and got chatting. It turns out that the four of them (Sorry I cannot remember their names, but it was a man with his wife and 2 young kids) have been traveling for two and a half years in their Kombi from the East Coast, and loving every single minute. He also told me that when they started off he knew very little about car mechanics but that now he could pretty much do anything on that Kombi, with a little help from a marvelous book called "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive" (and yes we are trying to order one). We chatted for a while comparing Kombis, and then headed our separate ways. Hopefully we will see them again on our journey. Can you guess the name of their Kombi?!
By chance, I saw a very small computer store from the car-park and they had the cable I needed, at last tunes! After 10 minutes of trying to get out of Carnarvon, I made it back to Highway 1 for the journey South.
The rest of my journey was fairly uneventful. I did see some truly incredible sites, but took very little pictures as I knew I would be back this way soon with plenty of time to absorb the surroundings. I more or less stopped every 150km to 250km depending upon fuel level and distance to the next station. The Australian roads are very informative about all of this and tell you every 10km how far the next roadhouse is, and as you approach that roadhouse, how far until the one afterwards.
Road trains were not too much of a problem. They are huge trucks, with seriously big roo-bars at the front. They stack them up like rail trains, with just about everything they can. So you will see a 3 sectioned one that will have heavy looking cylinders at the bottom, various boxes midway up, heavy duty bags of some sort above that, and then a few 4x4 vehicles at the top (I'd guess about 6m upwards). Multiplied by 3, and of course traveling at 120km/h. With this in mind you can understand why they never stop! God knows how they stack these things.
I got to Eneabba by 19:00, and it was getting pretty dark, but I was also pretty close. I wasn't tired (thanks partly to the Diet Coke and my iPod which had so far done about 14 hours of music since it's last charge, I knew I was on borrowed time!), so I decided to venture on but at a slower pace due to the lack of visibility. After about 10 minutes, an empty road train was behind me, and at the right opportunity I let him go by. I suddenly had a great idea! If possible keep up with the road train and he would not only be my eyes but also by battering ram should the need arise (it didn't). So for the next hour and a half I stayed glued behind this road train. And in many ways I think he knew that because on some of the hills he actually slowed down a little as Charlie struggled to cope.
The iPod gave up about an hour after Eneabba, but I was just within reach of the various Perth FM stations, phew! After missing a couple of turns, I finally headed into Perth and onto Padbury. I think I got to Danny's at about 9:00 to find a hero's welcome, well a glass of orange juice :) Charlie and I had done in one day 1147km which took us 14.5 hours with an average speed of 87km/h and a maximum speed of 112km/h. At no point did I have a single problem with him, and several times I was very impressed at his ability to give me a little bit more oomph when I really needed it. I think he passed his first day on the job!
We now have a Kombi! (and a home)
So after a less then pleasant night's sleep in the Kombi (smartass forgot to pack a blanket and had to wrap himself up in every available piece of clothing), I got up at 6:30am with a mission, to get back to Perth in this one day! It would be tough, as yet I had no available tunes as I needed one more cable to connect the iPod to the stereo, and funnily enough there isn't much call for radio stations in the middle of nowhere. Also, I wasn't sure how well Charlie would perform, and what sort of speed he would settle on for the journey, or how far I could really get on a tank.So off we went, with a beautiful sunrise to the left, we started our mega journey South. I stopped off at several small petrol stations or as they like to call them "Roadhouses". And surprisingly most of them serve hot food of some kind or another... i.e. Some had a small heated glass area with hot pies and hot sausage rolls (which were delicious) and others had full size restaurants (no time for that this time).
I got to Carnarvon by 9:45 and decided a quick break would be good which would also allow me to look for one of these iPod cables. I saw a Woolworths (which only do food) and went round their car-park looking for an easy space. Sure enough I see another Kombi and head right for it! The owners were in the process of getting ready for a day out, so we all stopped and got chatting. It turns out that the four of them (Sorry I cannot remember their names, but it was a man with his wife and 2 young kids) have been traveling for two and a half years in their Kombi from the East Coast, and loving every single minute. He also told me that when they started off he knew very little about car mechanics but that now he could pretty much do anything on that Kombi, with a little help from a marvelous book called "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive" (and yes we are trying to order one). We chatted for a while comparing Kombis, and then headed our separate ways. Hopefully we will see them again on our journey. Can you guess the name of their Kombi?!By chance, I saw a very small computer store from the car-park and they had the cable I needed, at last tunes! After 10 minutes of trying to get out of Carnarvon, I made it back to Highway 1 for the journey South.
The rest of my journey was fairly uneventful. I did see some truly incredible sites, but took very little pictures as I knew I would be back this way soon with plenty of time to absorb the surroundings. I more or less stopped every 150km to 250km depending upon fuel level and distance to the next station. The Australian roads are very informative about all of this and tell you every 10km how far the next roadhouse is, and as you approach that roadhouse, how far until the one afterwards.Road trains were not too much of a problem. They are huge trucks, with seriously big roo-bars at the front. They stack them up like rail trains, with just about everything they can. So you will see a 3 sectioned one that will have heavy looking cylinders at the bottom, various boxes midway up, heavy duty bags of some sort above that, and then a few 4x4 vehicles at the top (I'd guess about 6m upwards). Multiplied by 3, and of course traveling at 120km/h. With this in mind you can understand why they never stop! God knows how they stack these things.
I got to Eneabba by 19:00, and it was getting pretty dark, but I was also pretty close. I wasn't tired (thanks partly to the Diet Coke and my iPod which had so far done about 14 hours of music since it's last charge, I knew I was on borrowed time!), so I decided to venture on but at a slower pace due to the lack of visibility. After about 10 minutes, an empty road train was behind me, and at the right opportunity I let him go by. I suddenly had a great idea! If possible keep up with the road train and he would not only be my eyes but also by battering ram should the need arise (it didn't). So for the next hour and a half I stayed glued behind this road train. And in many ways I think he knew that because on some of the hills he actually slowed down a little as Charlie struggled to cope.
The iPod gave up about an hour after Eneabba, but I was just within reach of the various Perth FM stations, phew! After missing a couple of turns, I finally headed into Perth and onto Padbury. I think I got to Danny's at about 9:00 to find a hero's welcome, well a glass of orange juice :) Charlie and I had done in one day 1147km which took us 14.5 hours with an average speed of 87km/h and a maximum speed of 112km/h. At no point did I have a single problem with him, and several times I was very impressed at his ability to give me a little bit more oomph when I really needed it. I think he passed his first day on the job!We now have a Kombi! (and a home)
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