4^th LEG

And so Tom has told his story. The thrill I felt to see your darling arrive back cannot be really fully explained. Although having been treated so well and making some dear new friends we are constantly aware of our time constraints. And so it was with great delight that we set off this morning nice and early.

The first part of the run went very well. The car ran beautifully and Tom was mostly well behaved. Some time down the track however I stretched my leg into the footwell of the car and simultaneously received an electric shock of quite significant proportion. I felt my response was quite well restrained but Tom told me it was "rubbish, it must have been a bit of static electricity’. I suggested (through gritted teeth) that he might like to try and so he did. His response was not any where near as polite as mine and he very quickly pulled to the side of the road to investigate the problem. As it happened the magneto had worked itself loose and it was live because it was no longer properly earthed. Tom had the problem in hand and with the assistance of a kindly tour operator named Peter and the admiration of four young Swiz and myself he quickly fixed the problem.

The rest of the day went well and we are now in Fitzroy Crossing ready to send off our report.

Will sleep at Geiki Gorge tonight and check out our Emails.

It’s Thursday evening and here we are in Kununura. Since our last report lots of things have happened. We sent our last report from the service station in Fitzroy Crossing. When we had finally sent our reports and had a meal we went outside to the car which was by this time surrounded by about thirty of the local residents of the area. They were very interested in the car and asked lots of questions about our trip. While Tom was filling the car one of the men in the group spied our spare water containers, two bladders from wine casks, which Peter Morton from Port Hedland had given us before we left. He sidled up to the car and was surreptitiously trying to remove one from the material bag we were carrying them in. Tom told him to leave it alone and his wife, who I had been chatting to earlier, start to hit and abuse him. It caused a lot of trouble because a little later he started to abuse her, and then hit and kick her. It was very frightening. We were very glad to leave the area.

We then went to Geike Gorge. The word majestic springs to mind when describing the area. We took the time to go on a boat cruise up the gorge and thoroughly enjoyed the commentary delivered by the ranger from Calm.

On our return from the cruise we opted not to go for a swim in the gorge but set off pretty much straight away. We stopped in Fitzroy Crossing for Tom to change the oil and so it was quite late when we set off, hot and already tired. The day just seemed to drag on and on. We were travelling with the front windscreen open and we drove on and on but never managed to progress at all. Finally we shut the front and picked up speed immediately. It was about 7pm when we finally drove in to Hall’s Creek. Unfortunately I was supposed to call someone in Hall’s Creek but I was so tired I forgot. We finally left and traveled in the cool of the evening towards Kununurra. We were so tired that while looking for a parking bay we ended up pulling to the side of the road and sleeping in the car for about half an hour. I challenge any of you to sleep in Matilda especially on a very hot evening next to Tom.

Finally we awoke and moved on a little to a regular parking bay, spurred on by a kangaroo playing catch me if you can with the car. Of course the kangaroo won and we just could not catch it, try as we might. We drove into a parking bay, pulled our bedroll down onto the ground and fell asleep.

4:30 and I was awake. I was up, had a full wash and then washed the car with a small bowl of water. Tom woke up about 5 and was up washed and we set up about 6am. The scenery was lot of rocky out crops and even some large hills. We made good time and it was just on one o’clock when we drove into Kununura and found Bevan and Bernice at The Tuckerbox Stores. Bevan and Bernice are car enthusiasts and have kindly invited us to their home for the night and have offered no end of help and support.

And so here I am sitting looking out of a window that overlooks the beautiful Lake Kununura on the Ord River. Behind the lake is Elephant Rock and behind that a range of hills. I am finding words hard to describe the beauty surrounding us. I am so thrilled to have met Bevan and Bernice and am delighted to have had the opportunity to visit this lovely little sanctuary. Thank you to them both.

Now having written this report I think it’s bed time and off to sleep.

Goodnight until next time.

Regards Lois and Tom

Adit. We have been asked to outline our route. Roughly it is this : Travel to Darwin then back and down to Daly Waters. If the road from Daly Waters across to Borrooloola, Burketown and Normanton is in good condition we will go across to Cairns that way, if it is in poor condition we will go down to Three Ways and then through to Cairns from there. If anyone has traveled on the Booraloola road in the past twelve months could they please let us know the condition of the road.

Once reaching Cairns (and in fact a little above Cairns) then we will travel down the East Coast calling in to every capital city including Canberra to Melbourne. From Melbourne we plan to get on the ferry and go to Devonport and then drive to Hobart and back. Back in Melbourne we will drive across to Adelaide and then on the long road home across the Nullarbor. Our planned arrival date home is December 22^nd. We hope that you will be able to join us for our return journey into the city.

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