Australia So Much to See

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The track in through the station to Carawine was clay and The Driver commented "You wouldn't want rain."  Before we left, someone on a forum told us the SAND was soft by the river at Carawine Gorge (east of Marble Bar), and as we drove towards the river, we could see a camper trailer down at a lower level so bearing in mind the warning, thought we'd park and walk to check for firmness further towards the river.  We saw the large flat area of washed river stones with lots of car tracks, so we drove onto it some way planning turn around, and probably camp there if further towards the river was not suitable; it looked very firm.  The person should have said STONES not SAND.

Driving some way before risking turning, our seven and half tonne rig suddenly sunk into the stones. “Let the tyres down” The Navigator said. The Driver hates letting tyres down, and even more so pumping up again, as bending hurts his back. “I think I can get out” he said. JERK, CRUNCH, down deeper with every jerk, right down to the running boards on the F250. “25 psi all round” The Navigator said as we let all eight tyres down.  This worked for a few more metres, before the lot when down again; CRUNCH JERK CRUNCH. Digging in these stones was very difficult as they weren't exactly pea gravel.  With the heavily laden F250 tyres now down to 16 psi, we could risk no lower.

Time to try the Max Trax; we'd purchased one pair before leaving even though the Max Trax people said we would need four. Just using them under the rear wheels of the F250 was enough to get the rig moving, so as The Driver did a wide arc to turn around on the rather flat tyres, maintaining his momentum, The Navigator dug deep in the rocks to find the MaxTrax, as they got well and truly buried while doing their job. 

Just as it looked like the momentum would keep the rig moving, a couple with a Pajero and a small Supreme caravan came. They’d camped on the De Grey River with someone the previous night who warned them that the stones were soft, but the lady was driving and said “Look; it’s OK, there’s another caravan there” so she drove down onto the stones and promptly sunk – blocking our exit.  As The Driver stopped, our seven and a half tonne sunk down again.

At Kunawarritji we met another Bushtracker caravan owner who had been waiting two weeks for a new spring.  One had broken right through and getting deliveries to remote areas takes quite some time.  I'm sure this small community appreciated his building skills and all he did for them while waiting.  I don’t know how much longer he had to wait; we have a tale of waiting over two weeks for new springs from a different breakage a couple of weeks later.  But that is another story. 

Jupiter Well is a lovely campsite amongst desert oaks, and we spent the weekend there with a group of Victorians with camper trailers heading in the opposite direction. On Sunday afternoon one of them was looking at our rear airbags on the F250 and said “You’ve got a problem” as the front spring hanger bolt was freshly gone.  But that is another story and a tale of how in the outback, everyone is willing to do their utmost to help others.  Thanks guys.      

Although a well travelled older couple, in their embarrassment they didn't think about letting down tyres before we did that for them, used our spade and MaxTrax again to get them out of it, before we could to do the same all over again to get our rig mobile yet again.

We spent a pleasant evening sharing adventure stories with this lovely couple, safely parked on the edge of the station air strip which I had picked as a fall-back camp site when we drove in.  Then it RAINED.  We and the other couple managed to get out safely next morning before the road was closed.  Such was the start to our 2009 adventure.