Having had a good night’s sleep and used the shower on the
camper which was actually quite nice and spacious, we were all ready to go and
make up some ground after yesterday.
Except that we had a flat battery!
It must’ve been over-use of the Wi-Fi into the night?! I went over to reception at the truck stop to find a helpful
person with jump-leads but then met Errol at a petrol pump – a very quiet
mechanic. He was unlucky to be in the
wrong place at the right time for me – he had mechanic written on his van! He came over to look at the camper but then
we hit another issue – the battery was not under bonnet. Instead of simply popping the bonnet and
attaching leads you must remove a section of the passenger footwell to get to
it! Errol disappeared to find the tool necessary to enable him to do this. I felt bad for him getting stuck helping us…
As he was working I glanced along the side of the camper and
noticed that the water-fill cap had gone.
I’m not sure if I didn’t attach properly last time I topped up the water
or if it’s been stolen?! This was getting ridiculous. I felt like everything I was trying to do at
that moment was going wrong. We’ve now
got to return the van with a chip in the windscreen, no water cap and at that point
in time the engine wasn’t even running!
One problem was resolved when Errol managed to get the
engine started and we hit the road at 950am, only 50 minutes later than hoped. Si drove the first stint while I sulked and felt
sorry for myself.
We stopped off briefly in the mining town of Coober Pedy
before I took over at the wheel. Within
no time at all, I managed to run over a large lizard despite trying to avoid it
and fell into a depression again! The
last thing that I would want to do …. I’d slaughtered another animal, just like
with the bird last night. As an animal lover, this was a real low point for me.
As we neared the coast we stopped at salt lakes (above) and some
viewpoints before detouring into Woomera, the World’s largest missile test and
evaluation range! Established in 1947 as a site for the launching of British
Experimental Rockets, the area was also used by NASA. The first Australian built and designed
satellite was also launched from Woomera in November 1967. 
We rang ahead and booked a cheap campsite at Port Germein
for the night because we definitely needed to plug-in after two nights with no
power and this morning’s flat battery! Arriving
at just past 8pm, it was still light and we managed to catch sunset at
lighthouse.
The temperature had
plummeted, we needed to don fleeces to keep warm! We made dinner and randomly found a Little
Britain DVD that worked in the TV! Bonus
old classic comedy to relax to and I started to feel a bit more cheery…
We have a big day tomorrow – Si has plans for us to fix chip
in windscreen, replace the water cap and wash the van before dropping our stuff
at the Airbnb and dropping the van back.
Will they notice the fact that we’ve gone over our 3865km allowance and
charge us for excess distance as well??!
Only one thing for it - we finished off the wine and cider on board so
that we’d have two less things to carry tomorrow….
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