Day 22: Barkly Homestead - Cloncurry

We have been saved!

Oly got up at 5:30AM to catch the early morning trucks that would be outside Barkly Homestead waiting for it to open for breakfast.

When I woke up I tidied up Henry and spent an hour plucking up the courage to go into the ablutions where a dozen hornets were waiting to ambush me. Good job I googled hornets and it said if you kill one close to the nest the whole clan comes out to defend it. I had emptied a can of Raid into the crack of the door (my fire fighting training wasn't for nothing!) prior to the googling, but I don't think any died. When they started to come towards me instead of flying away in fear I knew I was not going to shower that day.

Finally around 11:30AM a road train pulled in going in the right direction with room for Henry. Plus the driver, Steve, said he could take us too. Townsville here we come!

I quickly showered in the hornet free gents. Even I didn't want to travel 100's of kilometres with me in a close confined space.

Henry was forklifted onto a trailer, we climbed up into the cab and didn't try to hide our excitement being in a road train. There were only two seats so I perched on the bed behind them.

Road trains are pretty cool. They have high ceilings so they are really roomy. It was a surprisingly bumpy ride, however even at 90 km/h you feel like you are only going at 50.

We are staying in Cloncurry tonight and tomorrow we will arrive in Townville. Hopefully we will be able to sort Henry out.

Em

Miles: 600km
Time: 8 hours
Location: Click Me!
Temp: 35c

Day 21: Barkly Homestead

:(

Henry didn't start.

Henry is most likely buggered.

I am in the bar of the Homestead and we have been sitting here since about 11AM watching out for trucks going east.

This morning several tinkering and helpful people have had a look at Henry. Sean, who works here, helped "tow start" him... sadly he spluttered and cut out in a billow of white smoke.

I don't know what else to say.

We are hoping a truck will pass through on the way back to Brisbane from Darwin and will have some room for Henry. We will have to get the Greyhound bus which I think takes around 3 to 4 days.

If we don't get Henry on a truck tonight then there is not another Greyhound until Thursday. Its now 23.15 and this places closes at midnight, the Greyhound comes 5 minutes after that.

As Elvis once said... "It's now or never"

We have excellent internet access with our laptop card so we don't feel too cut off, however neither of us have mobile access. I was starting to feel this place was like the Bermuda Triangle (where's Wonder Woman when you need her?).

On the plus side, Ol and I are good and taking it all in our stride... what else would we have to write about eh? Well Mount Isa, our next planned stop, would have been nice :)

We are fine, a bit tired of hanging around, but fine nonetheless!

Em

P.S. If Henry doesn't buck his ideas up he might be getting a new brother... http://www.volkswagen.com.au/california/features.asp (bring on the air-con!)

Temp: 39c

Day 20: Tennant Creek - Barkly Homestead

Where do I start...

Oh Henry!

We visited the cultural centre in Tennant Creek before we headed east to Barkly Homestead.

Henry felt a little sluggish and we put it down to having a few days of cold and now it was heating up again.

There was a moment of worry a few hours into our journey when we both noticed a distinct burning smell. It took a while but it finally dawned on us that we were running along side a bush fire. I just thought it had gone a bit hazy.

Half an hour later Oly shouted for me to stop and pull over as there was smoke filling the inside of the van behind us. We turned off the engine and had a look, couldn't see anything obviously wrong so we thought Henry needed a rest.

He wouldn't start up again.

Oly suggested one of us cycle the remaining 30km to the Homestead and get help. I just replied with "Urban Myth". I could see it now, he cycles off, it goes dark, he still hasn't returned. Hours later there is a banging on the roof of Henry, 10 police cars rock up and get me out of the car saying "don't look back", I look back and there is some psycho with Oly's head banging it on the roof. It was too hot to cycle and there was enough traffic on this road. We would be fine. Its a good job I haven't seen the movie Wolf Creek yet.

It was two hours and 30 cars/road trains later before anyone stopped for us. Luckily for us Todd and his father Alex pulled over to see if we needed any help and towed us to Barkly Homestead.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the bar talking with them. Todd is a tour guide based in Alice Springs and his father lives just outside of Sydney. Alex had flown up to Alice to join Todd for the long drive home for Christmas. Todd has recently adopted a beautiful 10 weeks old puppy called Knuckles who was so cute, he fitted perfectly into a small round washing up tub. We had a great time and they certainly kept our mind off Henry. We were very sad to see them go.

We are hoping tomorrow Henry will be well rested and raring to go...

Em

Miles: 200km
Time: 5 hours
Location: Click Me!
Temp: 39c
Music:
Audio book - Artemis Fowl - The Arctic Incident, Eoin Colfer