Photos page 3
I've been bogged many times but this was the worst.
The more I tried to dig my car out the deeper it sank! and salty water quickly
filled the hole. I had to walk several kilometres to a
drillers camp for help.
After a few hours of digging by hand the guys gave up and decided to bring over a
backhoe..
Why was I there? Some idiot had told me that gold had been found on this salt lake but I
had been driving around the lake all day without seeing any sign of anyone ever having
been in this area before. In the end I got tired and frustrated and didn't take my usual
precautions of stopping and walking ahead to test out the ground - fatal!
The backhoe driver drove onto the lake before we had time to warn him and became
immediately bogged. They told me you couldn't bog a backhoe, but this one definitely was!
They had to leave it there overnight. I have never seen a guy so close to tears as that
young backhoe driver!
I had to camp the night next to my stranded car.
They had to bring in a giant front end loader from a
couple of hundred kilometres away to winch the backhoe out.
I waited quietly in the background!
The guys were so relieved to get the backhoe out that they completely forgot about my car
which was out of sight around the corner.
I very meekly reminded them and they said:
'No worries miss! we'll drag you out with the loader',
My car was dragged out sideways and I thought it would be all twisted and bent but
incredibly it was okay (except for the
rust that is!).-The incident cost me three cartons of beer!
This is one of my overnight camps on my way from North Queensland to West Australia. It takes me about 10 full days of travelling and I go straight across the centre on little used gravel tracks. I pull off the road about an hour before sunset to make camp and usually put up a small tent. When it rains in central Australia this parched looking ground is covered in green grass and all kinds of wildflowers (it can also be completely flooded and impassable - see below).
After spending Christmas in Perth, West Australia with my sister, I start the long drive
home. The trip back is a different experience because by now the wet season in the north
has started and it can be almost impossible to get back to north Queensland on the same
inland roads I used before. Sometimes my father comes out from England and
accompanies me on the journey of over 5000 kms - like he did this year (much to his
regret!)
We decided to try going via Boulia but this road was also terrible so we found a high spot next to the road and camped a couple of days to let the road dry out a bit. With temperatures of over 40`c it doesn't take long! The flies were unbearable - my father is wearing a fly net.
