We decided to have a few days on the road to make sure that The
Hulk was up to scratch. We wanted to stay close to Alice so if trouble did
arise we would be able to go back to town if needed.
The previous week we spent working our butts off cleaning the
house and getting ready to travel, which meant packing and adding some
modifications to the Hulk. What wasn’t
packed nicely was eventually shoved in, as we were a little too eager to get on
the road. We left mid afternoon on Monday the 22nd and travelled south
a couple of hours to Rainbow valley.
We pulled up just as the sun was setting. We had enough time
to admire the stunning rock formations, set up and get dinner cooking before
dark set in. It wasn’t long before we felt like we were back to it and with a
rousing game of Skip-Bo (card game) we knew that we had made the right decision
to get out of dodge.
The next morning we woke and walked around the valley and to mushroom rock. We were surrounded by flies, but strangely enough we weren’t that bothered, there was something beautiful about the place that meant that you just didn’t have a care in the world.
The next morning we woke and walked around the valley and to mushroom rock. We were surrounded by flies, but strangely enough we weren’t that bothered, there was something beautiful about the place that meant that you just didn’t have a care in the world.
Eventually we left
Rainbow Valley and headed to Owen Springs Nature Reserve where we followed in
Stuarts footsteps, which had become very corrugated, and explored the area. We
went through sandy patches, rocky riverbeds (don’t get excited we’re still in
the desert so they were dry) and some very very corrugated patches of road. This
was adventure at its best.
From Owen Springs we headed west towards Hermannsburg and
Palm Valley, however about 50 Kms down the road our plan came apart, or at
least our back left wheel studs did and we very nearly lost a tyre(seriously
millimetres away!). Several choice words later we were stuck out in the back of
burke with no chance of limping back to Alice or west to Hermannsburg. We
flagged several passing cars and eventually one had a satellite phone and we
were able to call a towing company. Yes that’s right, our epic shake down ended
in epic disaster – Our Hulkie on the back of a tow truck. Heading home with our
tails between our legs we reflected that one can never be too cautious in
checking the car over and carrying spares for EVERYTHING, also that being a
mechanic by trade might be helpful for the rest of our trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment