1998
Lionel the Landcruiser
and Tap-Tap go Walkabout

Still lost!
Day 7
Alice Springs - Tanami

Hi again everyone. This is a composite of the last two days 'cos we couldn't face writing last night. The Tanami track lived up to its reputation and proved to be a real horror for us - although as a road it wasn't too bad at all. Still, we've made it through in one piece and still on schedule so we are now camped in the Walardi campsite at the Purunulu national park - usually referred to as the Bungle Bungle national park. This looks like being really nice 'cos we had a real 4WD road to get in here and we are planning a good long walk tomorrow.

So, back to yesterday and what was so awful. Well, it started really well, we got up and away before it got light and shot along the first 100 km of the Tanami (the bit that is sealed) nice and quickly. We filled up with diesel at Tilmouth Wells and got no reports of road probs so we carried on to Yuendumu. We stopped in there just to ask the police what the track was like, but just before we got there the shelf in the back fell down again!

This time it was the other side (at least the side we fixed last time held firm) so we fixed that at the same time as Rob popped into the Police station. A very nice young lady there told us that there had been rain at the WA end and a truck had jack-knifed and got stuck, but since we had a Lionel we would have no problem (she called it a 'cruiser' - but she didn't know any better). All well and good so off we were again on a 300km leg to Rabbit Flat roadhouse - the most remote roadhouse in Aus - with probably the most expensive fuel. But, hey when it is the only place to fill up for about 800 k - you charge what you want.

Before we got there however, we stopped to look at some funny mounds which looked like rocks but turned out to be termite hills - and then I wouldn't start again! My starter motor just wouldn't turn. Oops. What are we going to do now? After about 20 minutes of rocking me (both in and out of gear) and gentle taps with the lump hammer (kept to finish off any semi-dead animal we hit on the road) a car happened to come along. It was a couple of Germans in a rental Landcruiser and they very kindly gave us a tow to get started again. They didn't have any towing points or anything on their car - very strange, how did the rental people expect them to get themselves out of trouble?

Rob and the termite mound - Just before it all went horribly wrong...

Anyway, once we were moving we thought it would be OK, but after we filled up in Rabbit Flat - no go again. We were stumped. It was obviously more than just a jammed starter motor. The guy at the roadhouse (Bruce - I kid you not - is famous 'cos he delivered his twin boys himself one night about 20 years ago when the RFDS couldn't evacuate her till the morning. Doubled the population overnight - as he likes to tell everyone) couldn't help at all, but he suggested dropping in at the Tanami gold mine about 50 km up the road 'cos he said they were very helpful.

By this time the Germans had caught up with us and they had a problem of their own. Their fridge (which they had filled up with food like all good German tourists) had packed up. This was one we could look at, so Hild got out her pack of spare fuses and Rob got under the bonnet and we changed the fuse to get it going again - all the while being photographed by the man (much to the embarrassment of his wife who kept muttering to him in German to stop it). Well, they towed us to start again and we were off.

Tanami Track - more than we bargained for.

By this stage we were more than little worried. What if we were stuck here in the most remote place on our whole trip - how could we get to Darwin in one piece if I wasn't well? There was much debate about driving the 450 or so km to Halls Creek without stopping so that we could get it looked at there, but then again we wouldn't get there till late (it was already 3 ish) and then it would be Sunday tomorrow and everything closed. We decided to try the mine in any case.

Off up the side road marked PRIVATE, we came up to the mine and it looked pretty deserted. Finally we found a guy who turned out to be a contractor, but he at least told us where to find the site manager. We let Hild do the talking 'cos she is good at sweet-talking workmen and they said if we drove round to the maintenance shed, they would get someone to have a look. (All this while with the engine running 'cos we were scared to stop it!)

Trevor the desk-man got hold of John the mechanic and out he popped with his sunnies very neatly hung from one ear as he looked under my bonnet. First he had a play with the switch, which seemed to be OK, then he pulled the whole starter motor off and went into the workshed with it, only to come back out again saying that it went really well on the bench. So he put it back on again, but still no good. Then he tested the battery. Hmmm.

Now I've got two batteries, with a dinky little switch which is supposed to run from one before running from the other and also to charge them both depending on which one was low. We had been a bit suspicious before we set off and the RAC check said the system should be checked out, which we duly reported to the garage when I had my pre-tour service. All they had done was put on a new main battery (the one for starting). Apparently, this one had run flat and was not being charged at all! Also, the other battery still had charge, but wasn't being used so John reckoned the switch was bust. According to John, these switches are more trouble than they are worth and you only really need them if you are running something like a fridge off the car constantly, so we just by-passed it and joined the two batteries together together in parallel and vroommmm I went!

More termite mounds along the Tanami Track.

Well, were we pleased or what. We dropped John a few bucks to have a beer or two with the rest of the guys and off we went. By this time it was getting on a bit and we had planned to get closer to Halls Creek before camping (to be able to get to Bungle Bungle by Sunday evening) so we pushed on a bit. It really did seem like it wasn't our day when not long after we were going again, we heard knocking on the roof and stopped to find the straps holding the second spare wheel were loose. After we tightened them, and then the were loose again, we realised that the problem was the roof-bars - the front one was slipping backwards! So we had to sort that out before we went further as well. It was looking like being a long day.

At this point the road was also showing signs of the rain we had heard about, with puddles every now and then - some of which were deep enough that we got a bit worried and went into 4WD to make sure we got through. Rob splashed through a couple and got me all muddy again - just when I had got my red nose clean after the last mud! I'll get back at him soon, don't you worry.

At the WA border we met the Germans again just deciding where to camp for the night and we felt a bit bad turning down their offer since they wanted to cook us some food and give us beer (I think they were worried about their fridge breaking again and wanted to eat everything as fast as possible), but there was still an hour of daylight and we are a pretty independent unit really so we kept going. We also knew that we wanted to get going early and we reckoned they weren't in that much of a hurry since they had taken two days to get that far up the Tanami anyway.

We went on until it began to get dark and thought we had better look for somewhere to pitch the tent. It wasn't easy as there were lots of small trees and clumps of spinifex everywhere, but we stopped just off the road where we found a bit of space - which Hild made bigger by removing a small tree and I made a new road into it in my own inimitable style. We are getting good at putting the tent up and cooking now, so it wasn't long before we had the Rice-a-Riso eaten and were in bed. Nobody felt much like writing, and we were pretty close to the road so we just turned the light off and went to sleep.

now... for day eight...