Monday, Mar 05, 2007 at 20:35
Whilst staying in town I had the pleasure of going out on a few
breakdown jobs with the
contractors and seeing what happens on the other end of a country
breakdown call. Most of these
calls were flat batteries and a couple of lock outs. The most interesting of these calls was on a
warm balmy evening whilst I was enjoying a nice cold beer taking in a magic
Kimberley sunset
with Peter (who wasn’t drinking of course) when the mobile sounded. He received a call from
Steve Mantell about a Budget Landcruiser with a lock out at a
Emma Gorge resort, approximately
110kms from
Kununurra, 40kms of which was on the
Gibb River road.
The call was received at about 1800 on the Tuesday night and an ETA of roughly 2000 was given. So it was all
systems go as we checked the Mazda 4X4 to make sure he had the appropriate gear to get into this late model
Landcruiser, then off we drove. As we were travelling out to the job, Peter explained that because of the vastness of
the country, most of the huge outback stations don’t have fencing adjoining the highways, so at night time the risk
factor for hitting cows, kangaroos and emus rises significantly.
When we were getting close to the
Gibb River turn off I noticed some quite large bushfires and scrub fires burning
out of control, I was thinking what the! And where’s the fire trucks? As Peter explained “oh no, they just let the fires
burn up here because there’s no way of controlling them because the terrain is too difficult to get to them so they just
let them burn out on their own accord, no matter how many hectares is burnt”. Interesting I thought.
Having finally turned on to the
Gibb River road and heading towards
Emma Gorge Resort it didn’t take long for the
first roo to come bounding out in front of us, no worries, we pulled up in time and let it go on. The ruts on the gravel
road were very deep to say the least, which in turn made the car slide very easily if not driven correctly.
Then there were a few creek crossings which weren’t too bad and the other difficulty was
trying to see the road when another car passed, the dust just sat idly over the gravel on what
felt like a warm summers evening-but it was the middle of August.
We arrived at
Emma Gorge resort and went around to the beautiful outdoor area where the
restaurant was built around the base of a
Boab tree, which in turn had lighting beaming out
from its roots, it was a truly magic setting.
We went to the bar and shouted “who’s the guy with lock out in the Landcruiser”. Laughter
was heard from many quarter’s when finally this English gentlemen quipped, “I’m here, I’ll take you to the car”. The
laughter continued and someone said, “fancy getting help all the way out here for a lock out”. Peter took about 2
minutes to get into the car and subtly advised the driver to be a little more cautious next time, especially considering
where he was. As he was doing the paper work with the Budget customer I went for a walk and couldn’t help notice
the amount of 4WD’s lined up at the resort, in one car park I counted about 35 Landcruisers in a row, it looked like a
Toyota dealership!!
Join the AANT ...LOL
AnswerID:
225503
Follow Up By: Oldsquizzy (Kununurra) - Monday, Mar 05, 2007 at 20:37
Monday, Mar 05, 2007 at 20:37
IS a piece out of the RAC Monthly Newsletter...See we even go 220 klms for a lock out...
FollowupID:
486411
Follow Up By: Bonz (Vic) - Tuesday, Mar 06, 2007 at 18:29
Tuesday, Mar 06, 2007 at 18:29
35 Cruisers in a row? You should hang around with a better class of people hahahahaha
FollowupID:
486555