Hey everyone,
Sorry for the long gap since the last post, I promise this one will make up for it, and then some!!!
Ok, before I get cracking with this blog entry, I just wanted to make 2 things clear. First of all, if you have been reading Emelie’s blog entries (and you should), there will be a little repetition, but not so much as to make this boring, I hope anyway. Secondly, that after this blog entry most of my blog entries will be about Australian Life whereas Emelie will write more about our day to day activities. That is the plan anyway.
Right, now that the required warnings are out of the way, here is the blog.
I am writing this particular entry not to compete with Emelie over our last few days, but to get across some of our emotions and feelings that have built up over the last week or so, and also to detail some of the events from another perspective.
Right now I am sitting in Henry taping away at the computer, it is the afternoon and the heat is full on. Fortunately I have just spent a good hour letting the cool (as in cold) camp (as in tents) pool (as in, oh nevermind) chill me to a very pleasant temperature. We are in Yulara which is the closest resort area to Uluru (Ayers Rock), and we are enjoying a day off!
Yep, whilst everyone else (except for an old couple... no, another old couple!) got up at 5:00am to see a sunrise at some vantage point, we stayed in bed until 9:00! Of course we will be making that early rise tomorrow; I can’t wait to see how Emelie copes!
So, about 2 weeks ago, when it appeared that there was no more pimping we could possibly do to Henry, I stayed up one night and worked out exactly what our next step would be. We had flights leaving from Cairns on the 20th of December, and although we could change them (again) it would cost us a fair bit of cash (again).
For those of you who do not know, Cairns is pretty much diagonally opposite to Perth, as in far far away (no "are we there yet"s please!). We could do it along one of the coasts, but it would be rushed and we wanted to do the whole coast thing at a leisurely pace. This left us the only option of going right through the middle.
It must be said that Uluru is one site that both Emelie and I have been passionate to see. For me personally one of two sites I had as a must for our overall adventure, the other being the Great Barrier Reef.
I looked at several maps and it was definitely a workable plan. There were 2 stretches of road which were pretty bad; "4WD recommended, 2WD possible". Ok, possible, that sounds good enough to me. I checked with Henry’s chief engineer Kurt to see if he thought Henry would be up to the challenge. "Definitely" he told me. Not only is Henry in excellent condition, but his engine is geared for torque not speed which is exactly what you need on these types of roads. Also, it goes without saying that they simply just don’t make them like Henry anymore, and as such he is far more capable than any modern 2WD vehicle.
There were two more issues; the heat and the possibility of flash floods! I checked a few weather websites and there was nothing bad forecast. I will however admit that I read the following in a book: "under no circumstance attempt this road between November and March". But for many years in the UK I have thought and discussed with others the shifting of our seasons. I do not know the reason why, perhaps that is another discussion, but for me it is almost fact. It was clear to see that Australia was also having the same shift. Time to put my money where my mouth is!
So on the 15th of November we set off.
The journey started great, we saw plenty of amazing things, and then we got to Hyden and Henry decided to die on us. Day one, and we had problems. The mechanic could not fix him, but said that he could get him working until the next city. From Hyden, Kalgoorlie and Perth are almost the same distance away, and we pondered going back to Perth, but decided that we wanted to carry on with the adventure.
The next day we got to Kalgoorlie no problem, however when we got there, Henry was really feeling rough. It took us ages to find a mechanic that would work on him, they either had no clue about Henrys or were busy for the next fortnight at least. Each time we stopped at a mechanic I had no idea if he would start again. He did, repeatedly. Eventually we found one that could do the work the next morning. We left Henry there and stayed in a hotel.
The next day we picked up Henry, and everything was fine... for about 15 minutes until he started stalling a lot and making funny noises (the new fuel pump going 10 to the dozen). Of course this was now Friday evening, and the mechanics had been closing up for the weekend. Fortunately we got hold of them on the phone, and they agreed to have a look first thing in the morning.
The next morning they spent a few hours on Henry (apparently one of the new fuel hoses had withered already), and off we went... for another 15 minutes, and stalling started again. We raced back, and the mechanic did a few more tweaks, but looked seriously perplexed. I knew then that he was not going to solve our problems and going back would be a waste of time for both of us.
Emelie and I had a discussion, we could still try and make a dash back for Perth and start over again, or we could wait for some mechanics on Monday... or we could try calling a mechanic whose number had been given to me when we arrived in Kalgoorlie. I was told to give him a call if I could not find any other help. I could not, so I did. He said he would have a look the following morning.
Pops Kennedy, as he likes to be known, spent 3 hours working on Henry. He did all sorts of things with the fuel pump, points, timings, etc. Each time he thought he had sorted it, I would take Henry out for a test run, and each time I would return. I must say that he did sort things out, and on each outing Henry felt much better than the last time. I suspect he was just undoing the damage from the previous mechanics but I am not sure. On the fifth return, Henry felt 98% better, and although I knew he was not perfect, he felt ready for the journey.
The following morning we made an early start to Laverton, the last town with sealed roads. Henry was supreme.
The morning afterwards we started on the Great Central Highway, and the start of our 4 day dirt track journey.
I must add here, that I did not take this stretch of journey lightly. We had 2 first aid boxes, fire extinguisher, spare tire, 60 litres of water, 40 litres of additional fuel, fresh food for the next 6 days, canned food for at least another 6, a complete set of tools (and then some... can never have too many tools), 2 paper maps, 1 GPS map, a new UHF radio, and a few other safety bits. Henry groaned a tiny bit at having to lug this extra stuff, but we would not budge!
About 3 hours into the journey, we got a flat. To be totally honest, I had noticed the tire looked a little low the night before, but decided it was the gravel giving way underneath. Mistake number 1. Anyway, we were in the middle of nowhere and we had a flat. No worries, get the jack out and change it. Everything was going smoothly, Henry was nearly at the height needed, when I noticed that the Jack was at a bad angle. I tired to lower it back down, but I was not fast enough, and the sand gave way under pushing Henry backwards and in the process bending the jack (Old Kombi jacks work by slotting in a square arm into a square tube under the Chassis. There is no give should the Kombi move). Mistake number 2.
After much swearing, we spent the next half hour just getting the jack off. Once we did, it was clear that this would be of no further use to us. We briefly tried a few other things but basically we were stuck here. We had provisions to last us for ages but what a pain in the ass! And then in the distance I spotted a dot against the shimmering road. Our saviour! I think I jumped with joy. It took forever to arrive and when I realised what it was, I was not quite so enthusiastic.
"I don’t suppose ... hehe ... you have a jack do you?"
"Nope" the man said from his road scraper, tyres the height of Henry!
"Nope ... I didn’t think so ... I have a flat, and my jack is now broken ... the sand don’t you know!"
"hmmm ... well I could lift your vehicle up with my scraper"
"You could lift the vehicle with your scraper?!?!"
And before any further words were uttered he jumped into his cab, moved the scraper scarily close to Henry, and then proceeded to position the scraper’s shovel under the rear of Henry (done by digging a half metre trench in the road, which by the way took all of 1 minute). Before we knew it Henry’s back was up in the air, and at exactly the right height for tire changing! I was seriously impressed. He had moved the enormously powerful shovel with such precision and delicacy.
I like to think that he was equally impressed with my technique of removing the non-budging wheel nuts.... Brute force and plenty of swearing!
Having changed the wheel, we said thank-you many times, and set off again. Several hours later we made it to the Roadhouse at Tjukayirla, the most remote in Australia!
"erm ... can we have some fuel, a powered site for the night .... and I don’t suppose you have any tires?"
Luckily they did, and not too expensive either, at least not as much as their bloody petrol! Of course Emelie reminded me that the new tire was of no use to man nor beast (I think her exact words) unless we had a working jack! Luckily they had an old one gathering dust in the corner, happy for it to have a new home.
"errr ... are you sure this will be able to lift up a Kombi, it is so small" as I tested it in my hand.
"Oh easily, that has come off a Land Cruiser!"
"Off a Land Cruiser?!" half laughing, but then as I turned it around, sure enough it had Toyota Land Cruiser embossed on the bottom. "oh yeah, ... great! ... Thanks!"
It is at this point that I must say we were starting to feel a little worse for wear. We had had problems with Henry, which we knew were not 100% sorted, I had made bad errors with the wheel replacement, and many other smaller things had either broken or gone wrong. Was this a sign for us to change our direction back, or a test of our nerves?
I can’t emphasize how much that question weighed down on us. We saw a beautiful sunset and decided to carry on, but perhaps with a little less skip in our step.
We did the next 2 days driving in 1 day, and although happy with the progress, we were really feeling worn out, and our bodies were aching all over.
We had 1 day of driving left until we would be on sealed road again. The roads up until this point had varied between sand, dirt, and tiny pebbles, but pretty much the whole way so far we had been able to stick to 55km/h or greater without too many bumps. However the stretch coming up was notorious for being a real bone shaker.
We tackled it head on. For the first 100km it was fairly easy going, but the next 100km became painfully slow work, and no matter how slow we went, the industrial strength rattling would not give up. Ridge after ridge, bend after bend, it felt like it would never end. Clack-clack-clack-clack all the time, and things falling out of shelves, drawers falling out of the Cabinet, it was horrible. But after a couple of hours it slowly got better, and the last 100km of the dirt road was a dream by comparison.
There were in fact two things that we were excited about when we got up that morning. The first being the end of the dirt road, and the second being Uluru, which would be just 20km beyond the former.
So, with 50km (according to the GPS) left before Uluru, you can imagine our utter excitement at the site of a barely visible object in the distance. Uluru. Now as some of you will know, to see something that far it has to be big... really big! And as we slowly got closer, we realised it was bigger still. The land around us as far as the eye can see is basically flat, and yet here in front of us, many many kilometres away, sits this immense block.
HOW?
WHY?
We were desperate to get to the camp grounds, but this most majestic of objects demands respect and awe. We had to stop several times to take it all in.
I had jokingly played on teh stereo "I am a rock" earlier that morning, and thought I would play it again when we saw the great monolith... and yet when we saw the site in front of us it no longer seemed appropriate.
When we were 35km away, I realised that 2 things were wrong with this monolith ahead of us. First of all, it was just getting too close to be 35km away, and secondly, the shape was wrong, it had huge gaps for starters!
We checked the maps, this was in fact Kata Tjuta, otherwise knows as the Olgas. The fact that this was not Uluru did not reduce our wonder though, if anything it made it even more amazing.
For those of you who have not seen Uluru or Kata Tjuta, and even for those that have, I don’t think you can fully appreciate the joy we felt at seeing them. You see they not only represented one of the most incredible sites on this earth, but they also meant to us that the dirt road was nearly over, and the hardest part of this journey would be done!
We met sealed road with a "yippee" and made way for the campsite at full speed (90km/h). We did see Uluru in the distance once we got to the side of Kata Tjuta, and although its presence was seriously impressive, Kata Tjuta had been the one that beckoned to us from the soul destroying roads of dirt.
That was yesterday, and today we relaxed, I swam in the pool, and even bought a deliciously cold Diet Coke. It tasted so good.
Tomorrow the adventure begins starts up again as we visit Uluru, Kata Tjuta, and then Watarrka (Kings Canyon), and then onto Alice Springs and eventually Cairns.
A picture of the Great Central Highway, Kata Tjuta in the distance.
Two hours out of Alice, a hop, skip and a jump over the Tropic of Capricorn, we passed a hand written road sign:
Oly was having a nap in the passenger seat when I noticed aliens running towards the road. We had arrived at Wycliffe Well, the UFO capital of Australia. We popped in to have a nose, under the guise of buying a drink. Oly blew our cover as soon as he walked in and said... "so when was the last time you had a UFO here?" the man in all seriousness said the 1st of October was the last time they had extra-terrestrial visitors. Now that was one weird place.
Our intention was to stay at Barrow Creek. Ol took a quick picture inside of the bar and left, we just didn't fancy it. About 10km north of Barrow Creek is where Peter Falconio went missing. It was very quiet for the next 30km.
