Day 10 - Friday 13 July - Black Friday bites

Day 10

Friday

13 July 2018

Carnarvon – Minilya on our way to Exmouth - Carnarvon

I think my body has adjusted to being awake early. I guess it isn’t such a bad thing, as we can get on with things and today it meant we could be on the road to Exmouth a little earlier. We moved smoothly through our routines and by 830am, the car was on the trailer and we were out on the road. We stopped in for fuel and then returned to the North West Coastal Highway ready for the next 360km. 

I spent the time catching up on the blog and then reading all about Exmouth. We reached Minilya Roadhouse at 10am when 2km up the road and 200km short of our destination, the right rear van tyre went bang and our travels were scuttled. Paul limped the van to the side of the road, before we jumped out to check on the damage, one very flat tyre grr. 

The next job was to get to the needed tools and then to get the tyre down. Crunch, crunch went the long tool with nothing happening. Damn it! We weren’t going to be able to change this one. I was on the phone to roadside assist, as Paul got busy taking off the car and trailer. A flat bed tow was organised from Carnarvon and then we just had to wait it out.

And wait…

And wait…

And wait…

We amused ourselves with walking and reading. Paul rang the service centre who had installed a new spare tyre mechanism in January, to give them what for. They said they would send us a replacement when we reached a major centre. Fat lot of good it does us while we are stuck by the side of the road.

I heard from the towing mob in Carnarvon, who were on to it, but had not trucks available for some time, great! I was glad we had purchased a Telstra prepaid mobile card, so we would have coverage for moments like these, but as it turned out, both of our iinet mobiles were in range, so we were still able to make calls to the outside world and surf the net to pass the time.

We sat in the van as it wobbled and swayed with each passing vehicle, how fast and how big determined the severity of the wind wake wobble we felt. All the while the metronome that was the hazard light flasher, counted down the passing time, one loud click at a time. 

I had a brief nap, before finally getting up to make lunch and then rang ahead to Exmouth and let them know that we wouldn’t be making it in today and hoped it would be tomorrow, hope, fingers crossed.  I then received a call from the towing company again to let us know the small truck would get us. It would be back in Carnarvon in an hour and a half and then on its way to get us and with an hour and a half drive back, we still had 4.5 hours to kill. Looks like we won’t get back to town before 530pm. Bugger.

I moved from kitchen table, playing cards, to the bed to read, to the bed to nap, to outside for a stretch. It felt like a movie montage of scenes playing over and over. All the while the sheen of sweaty skin increased, as the van took on the heat of the day. 

At 4.50pm, I rang Carnarvon Auto Service Towing, to make sure a truck had left. The receptionist cheerfully told me that it had, 45min ago. Ok so we might make it back to Carnarvon for 7pm now. Great.

The shadows grew longer, as the afternoon sun travelled across the sky and eventually they melded in to one giant blanket of blackness. 6pm and still no truck. Then bright blinking headlights came flashing around the corner and Paul gleefully announced, “that’s for us.” Yippee 6.15pm. 

Billy got about rescuing our stranded Winnie, readying her for shifting onto the back. Paul jumped in the driver’s seat to guide her on, only to have the van not click over, the Hazards had drained the battery. Boo!  She was eventually dragged onto the back, secured and we were on our way at 6.35pm. 

We followed Billy in the Getz, towing the trailer. We stayed close by to use his headlights, conscious that anything could cross our path. Lucky for us it was an easy run, with little other traffic about and at 8.10pm we finally pulled into the yard, exhausted but grateful to be back. 

Billy lowered the van from the flat bed tray, put his truck in the compound and bid us goodnight, it had been a long day for him too. I got straight inside, set up the van, before heating some soup through and devouring that, before we finally put an end to this horror Friday 13^th.