Day 5 was the longest, most difficult, most challenging and most rewarding day of driving I have ever had. The day started early from Hellsgate Roadhouse, and it took about half an hour before the first of 7 serious river crossings. There was a bit of queue that we joined, right next to a grass fire. Nice, at least there was a river near by.
Grass fire near our first crossing
Our first river crossing
A volvo powers through the river
The Dolly full of water
In what seemed like a bad omen for the day the Dolly stalled crossing the first one – and took 25 mins to get started again. Most impressively the foot wells of the Dolly started to fill up with water. It took some time to bucket the water out. At the second crossing it happened again, and took half an hour to get going again. It was a serious struggle to get her going, but some cunning bush mechanic work from the Red dirt Roosters, Stu and Sheldon got her up and barking again. The Alfa and ‘rona seemed to handle the second crossing quite ok. But after the Dolly got up and going the Alfa wouldn’t start. It took 25 min to get the Alfa going. The ‘rona stalled across this water crossing, but again was able to be started and came out of it under her own steam. Then the third one came. And the warning went out, “Don’t get out of your cars to take photo’s as there is a croc about!”. Strewth! Happily for Eloise and Stu the Dolly made it through no problems at all. So did the Alfa and the ‘rona………...apparently. On closer inspection the ‘rona had a hole in the radiator, courtesy of an argument with the radiator fan. Bugger! 2 cans of silver seal, and god knows how much Angel dust from the Shitbox Angels and the ‘rona was ready to go.
Big paddocks up here!
A hole in the 'rona's radiator
The road was seriously rough, dusty and rocky, and it was seriously slow going. We averaged 30 km/h for the first 6 hrs. There was no stopping for lunch as we just didn’t have time. It was just a slow hard grind. Then came the last of the river crossings. This one was a corker. There was no option to be had but to be towed across it by a four-wheel drive. This did the ‘rona and the Dolly no harm at all, and aside from a little water from the river in the cars, all was good. However the Alfa again got all-Italian on us and refused to start. The three other teams we were travelling with (Shitbox Angles, Rad Team Awesome and Deutschland Downunder) left us as they need to get going to try and make it before dusk. It took 40 min to get the car going again, but some determination from Stu and Sheldon got the fiery Italian going again and we were away.
A dead shitbox at the last river crossing
The 'rona scores a nice steering wheel cover
After about 250 km and about 8 hrs on the road, it began to improve. The potholes and gravel turned into a plain old red dust road, and away we went. It was magical belting along this road at dust, about 100 m between cars, and watching the plumes of dust at sunset. I was lucky to be piloting the ‘rona at the time, and it was awesome.At dusk (about 6:30 NT time) we still had 2 h of driving to go. Dan drove the rest of the way to the Heartbreak Hotel at Cape Crawford. The reception we got at the hotel when we arrived was fantastic as 150 people gave us a massive cheer. This is great – but the beer was even better. So was the second, so was the seventh!
No matter how tough today was - I wasn't at GPSL.
No matter how tough today was - I wasn't at GPSL.
The best beer of all.
Kilometers travelled: 560 km
Total time on the road: 13 h
Road kill: <10
Road kill by the Dolly: 1 roo, 1 owl and another miscellaneous bird
Coolant consumed by the Dolly: 200 L
Coolant used by the ‘rona: 285 L
Sticks of silver seal used by ‘rona: 2
Amount of WD40 used: 600 L
Number of steering wheel covers facility shared: 1.
Number of spark plugs changed: 24
Number of broken down Hilux’s in the middle of nowhere: 1 (and that was only 5 years old).
Number of random grass fires driven through: 2
Number of dead shitboxes: 5
Number of resurrected shitboxes: 3
Amount of awesome sunset dust driving at 100 km/h: 170 km (and everyone was brilliant)
No comments:
Post a Comment