Sunday 17 December
Esperance – side of the Highway – Albany - wool insulation shed carpark
I knew I would regret needing to go to the loo at 545am. Paul got out with me but I returned first and crawled straight back into bed. Paul however, returned and was keen to get moving. Urgh. I kept my eyes closed as he got busy sorting breakfast, in the end I couldn’t hold out any longer and had to join him.
I ate and then went for a shower. When I returned, Paul had packed up most of the van and was off having a shower. I finished the clean up an when Paul returned, we were ready to get on the road. It is a bitter sweet journey today. While I am excited to see the folks and of course Yogi, who we have missed terribly, seeing them means this incredible journey is all over and we need to return to the grip of reality, something I am not ready to do just yet.
9am and we were making our way through Ravensthorpe and just over 300km short of Denmark.
The wind had been a bother thus far and conditions soon deteriorated with the temperature dropping 10 degrees from the time we had left, it was now 14 and the rain starting up.
We busied ourselves listening to The Dribble podcast, a reflection of all things wildcats with Greg Hire. It is interesting to hear stories and thoughts from the player’s side of the fence and gives an interesting perspective to what is happening within the team.
Just after 10am we reached the wheat and sheep town of Jeramungup. The large paddocks of wheat were covered with streaky lines where combine harvesters had been through stripping the required grain from the stalk. Other paddocks had the sheep roaming about in packs, lazily grazing.
We stopped in town for fuel before continuing on, now 178km short of Albany.
The temperature was slowly on the rise again, as we reached a patch of blue sky and sun, but the wind was just horrendous, in-fact I don’t think we have experienced it like this during our whole trip. We may as well have been a boat battling high seas the way we were being tossed around.
100km on from Jeramungup, things went pear shaped with the right rear van tyres going bang! Paul was able to control the vehicle and pull to the side of the road where we got out to inspect the damage. The tyre was completely rooted which left us in a precarious position as we knew we were unable to remove the spare wheel after the issue we had in Sydney.
Next problem was phone cover, neither of us had any. Thankfully a couple stopped and were able to help us out, allowing me to phone Maxxia to organise a tow and then ring Mum to have them come and collect the trailer.
With not much else to do, we made lunch. Paul set about taking the car off the trailer and then the trailer from the van, up as the van was sitting low to the ground, he couldn’t bring the jockey wheel into position and had to look to the jack to try and lift the van. This is not how this day was planned to go! Though it does seem to be what happens when we are heading to Denmark. We started the journey with a tyre issue and now we seem to be finishing in the same manner.
We played cards to while away the time. It did keep us amused but we were both keenly aware of approaching vehicles. Dad eventually showed at 2pm and he and Paul hitched up the trailer to the patrol. It was lovely to see him even if only for a short time and then he was off. I jumped in the car in the hope I would eventually find phone coverage, but only got 10km before I came across Dad, the bike lying flat on the trailer. We weren’t able to rectify the situation, so I had to drive back to van and let Paul go and deal with it. He returned 30min later with it all sorted. Hopefully Dad made it back with no more dramas.
I then resumed my crusade for phone cover, driving about 30km towards Albany. Finally my phone began pinging, so I pulled over and rang Maxxia for an update. They hadn’t sent the tow as they were waiting for a confirmation phone call from us as to still requiring the tow! YES, I have been waiting 3 Freaking Hours already!! Now I am not one for yelling and getting angry, but boy was I seething and I let them know it. To put icing on it, the call centre operator wanted to know if we could actually hold off til tomorrow. I told him in no uncertain terms no. He then Wanted to call me back within the hour with an ETA, what part of I don’t have coverage and I just drove 30km to get it, do you not understand? In the end he put me on hold and when he returned he told me he couldn’t get a hold of the operator of the tow. Oh My GAWD. In the end I returned to Paul with the understanding that Yes I still needed a tow and that a tow truck would be here by this evening, but I wasn’t holding my breath.
When I returned just before 4pm, I relayed the story to Paul who was just as peed off as me. In the end we were left to the mercy of the roadside assist and with nothing to do but wait, Paul sat and read while I vented here on this page. Grrrrrrrrr
The grey clouds were now closing in and spots of rain were splattering the car. Dad had said that wild weather was expected, I just hoped we were sorted before it got too nuts.
We played cards to keep us entertained. It didn’t stop us from becoming hopeful with every new approaching vehicle sound, it was always in the back of our mind. We played for a couple of hours. The rain had stopped and it was warm and sunny once again.
We were now at the point of despair, 6pm and no sign of the tow truck. We knew it was inevitable we would be spending the night by the roadside. Paul attempted to move the van so that it was more level, unfortunately it just accentuated the angle, it we were at least off the road. It would be an interesting night’s sleep.
I put a salad together for dinner. We had to hang on to everything as it was sliding from the table every time we turned our back. We ate, both now in quite a despondent state, but knowing there was nothing we could do but wait it out.
Paul laid in the bed and read his book, while I did the same at the table. At 645pm Paul was gleefully stating that the tow truck had finally arrived. I didn’t believe it, but there certainly was a large, purple flat bed cruising by. Yippee. the two guys were great and they soon had our Winnie up on the back cruising away, while we followed in the Getz, mindful of roo time and we did see one make a successful pass on front of the truck.
When we had phone coverage, Paul rang Mum to let them know what was happening and that we would see them tomorrow. We finally rocked into Albany and down to the lower Denmark road where the guys stopped at the wool shed and got busy.
I took refuge inside the giant shed used to make wool insulation while Paul moved the van to the back of the tray so the end was overhanging and they could get a look at the spare tyre. It took the, some time, a lot of tools and a fair bit of ingenuity to finally free it from its spot under the chassis. With their lamps and screwdrivers in hand, they looked like doctors performing surgery.
Once the spare was released, the forklift was used to lift up the back end of the van so that the blown left tyre could be removed and the spare put on in its place. With it all swapped over, the tray was tilted and Paul was able to roll the van off the truck. Hallelujah. We parked on the small patch of lawn, were shown where the toilets were inside the massive shed and then said our goodbyes and our very heartfelt thanks, as really all they had to do was give us a lift into town, so they went well and truly above and beyond.
We were finally on our own by 915pm and feeling absolutely beat but wired at the same time. I prepared for bed and we both crawled in at 925pm. We read for a bit before hoping sleep would find us and put an end to this day.
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