Our Trip

Day Six

Well, day six is finally here for you

to enjoy the excitement of that day! 

The day started off getting that little bit cooler,

and seeing me take a quick family selfie. 

Maddy and I took a turn at tackling 

a sand dune or two. 

We made it over them, but the old cruiser was

a bit all over the road (due to no anti sway bar),

so we were happy to hand the wheel back to Dave. 

(plus, I wanted to take pictures).

Maddy also got to drive across Gravity Lake,

a huge claypan. 

We crossed hundreds (or so it seemed)

of sand dunes on day six. There were quite a 

few soft ones that had us taking a second go,

but Emilee showed us up by making it the first time 

on one sand dune that had our friends and us both 

going back for a second attempt. Hmmf! 

The big claypan was interesting to walk out on.

Full of animal tracks and crunchy dried clay. 

It really did crunch underfoot. 

It was also very windy and Emilee 

had to chase her hat quite a distance after

it decided to do a runner! 

Anyway, we kept on and climbed up and 

over numerous dunes. 

At one point, Chloe and I decided that

it would be great to ride on the top of the cruiser

to really take in the view. And we weren't disappointed!

It was actually a smoother ride up there. 

And some more of the road...……

And a little more....

I climbed off and let Maddie have a turn too. 

There were many beautiful flowers along

the way that I tried to make sure I photographed

each and every different type.

(some were taken out the window in a blur

when we couldn't stop) 

About this time we noticed Emilee's front

diff leaking, but we pushed on. 

We met more travellers as we headed south

and Chloe got a hand at driving across another dry lake bed. 

This was VERY scary as Maddy and I decided 

to hop up on the roof. BAD IDEA! 

We were very nearly thrown off!

It didn't help that Chloe couldn't see well enough over the 

steering wheel or that the cruiser had a definite drift

to her. Well, we survived, but were happy to get down onto

solid ground. 

And if you're wondering what I have a picture of a belt for,

well, I just wanted you to see that I had breakages too! 

My trusty belt turned out not so trusty, and I had 

to do a Territory style fix. Cable Ties! 

Where would we be without them?

Well, once we got to well 42, 

we stopped to assess Emilee's leaking diff. 

And we found, interestingly enough,

that 4 bolts had totally snapped off,

1 was totally stripped,

and there were only 5 remaining. 

That and it was pouring out oil onto the ground. 

(sorry to the earth lovers, we may have left

some not so 'green' oil on the ground)

Well, that helped us decide where to camp

that night. RIGHT THERE! 

Dave and Kon, with help from Emilee,

began the difficult task of diagnosing,

deciding, and repairing the damage. 

We didn't have any spare bolts the right size with us,

so the old fencing wire came out

(thanks to Dave's upbringing, you don't leave home

without it) and they were able to cobb and co

the diff up. If Emilee didn't put it into 

4WD, we'd be right! Also, every hour or so of travel,

Dave would climb underneath the ute and retighten the 

continually loosened bolts. 

It was very oily, messy work, so we set 

up the shower so the fellas could at least wash some

of the oil and dust off before bed. 

An interesting day had ended and 

we had made it another 100km. 

Praying started in earnest on my part

as each little bump, or corrugate 

had me praying that God would hold those remaining 

bolts in so we wouldn't be left stranded. 

But, God is good and he held things together.

There was even 2 instances where Dave actually

found a bolt, just the right size on the ground 

at different campsites, that he was able to use

(one was used on our battery mount, as one had 

rattled off, and it was just the right size) 

And so the saga continues...………….

See you on day seven!