Route: Innamincka – Windorah
Kms: 455 (all dirt).
Push Up Count: Caroline – 0, Michael – 0
Lionel: Good Things – managed to survive yesterday after a few front end repairs. Bad Things – The amount of dust is incredible and we’re still scrubbing tyres. Looking forward to getting off the dirt and easing up on the old beast.
Wedding: Still On
An early rise this morning on the banks of the beautiful Cooper Creek in full flow. We’ve said it previously, but Innamincka is absolutely beautiful.
After a fantastic breakfast at the Innamincka roadhouse (can’t believe the spread this place in the middle of nowhere put on) it was time to get moving. Lionel the Limo was parked up next to Code Brown’s Hearse, and low and behold, Lionel was over 4ft longer – man we really ARE STUPID. Lionel’s drive line has been performing splendidly well – again using no oil the day before –pity about everything else falling down around it!
Today’s route was to take us up the Planet Arraburry Rd kissing the South Australian border inside Queensland – our fourth state in as many days. This was real Burke and Wills country – so much so, today’s route took us straight past the infamous Dig Tree on the Cooper Creek where Burke and Wills were to meet their resupply. All they found was a burnt tree, some limited buried supplies and the eventual death of Burke. Unfortunately for us, an extra 30kms on dirt was required to see the tree, including a long river crossing up to 75cms deep, which we had no choice but to avoid. After Lionel miraculously survived day 3, we were taking no chances.
We pushed on with the two Whippy’s in tow – Big whippy (EF Falcon) and Little Whippy (Toyota Echo) both painted in Mr Whippy Pink. These guys are absolute troopers, knowing nothing about cars, but oh my did they choose well. These pink little beasts did not miss a beat the entire way!
The Whippy’s made up of 2x Doctors, a Nurse, a Marine Biologist, an IT guru and an accountant had a very special purpose in being out in the middle of the Australian desert with all of us maniacs. Daisy and Lucy (sisters) lost their Dad last year to Cancer, and Matt is a Cancer survivor. It took a while for the Whippy’s to share their stories and we’re so incredibly grateful they did. Hopefully the rally helped these guys move forward a little and start talking about how Cancer had affected them. Even though the Whippy’s story is one in many out here, I think it gave us a real purpose in doing what we are – reinforcing our purpose to be in the middle of nowhere in a limo raising money for the Cancer Council.
We had a fun day cruising with our reduced group of three cars, while the remainder of our buddy group checked out the Dig Tree. It was slow going, as the roads weren’t much better than yesterday. We were passed by a few cars, and we managed to get past a few more. At one stage, Team Hot Rod came flying past us – with no real care for their car. Michael, made a smart ass remark on the radio about choosing a Magna next year so he could plough through everything like these guys, to which they laughed. Not 30 minutes later, low and behold, Hot Rod were stopped with a smashed Transmission sump. Obviously we felt bad, stopped and did what we could to get them going. We handed over our transmission oil stocks, some sealant and said ‘good luck with that’. These guys finally made it into Windorah (8 litres of trans oil later) and Michael spent a fair whack of the evening under their car trying to stem their woes.
About halfway through the day, a radio call piped up from Big Whippy – the last car in convoy of our three. The transmission was broken and all we managed to understand was ‘stopping’. We pulled over, waiting for more information, as turning Lionel around on these roads required a 48 point turn. Little Whippy cruised the 800 or so metres back to them, and when they didn’t return a few minutes later, we knew something was up. Neil copped a double blow out, and spun the Falcon 360degrees at 120kmh. Everybody was ok, the wheels were changed, and we were off about 10 minutes later. I don’t need to explain just our lucky these guys were!
455kms of nasty dirt, gravel and sand later we arrived in Windorah to the welcoming arms of the local Constabulary. Michael blew in the bag, while Caroline filmed, they took the piss out of the Limo and we were off to meet ‘Bub’ at the local Servo. We had been warned about Bub by some guys that used to fly into here, and what an honour it was to meet her….that’s all we’ll say.
Windorah camping was on the town oval, in very close confines – it had a fun party vibe. Lionel received some pick racing stripes upon arrival (just so we didn’t feel out of place with the Whippy’s) and all the cars in our buddy group were decorated with a big blue ‘11’. We had a couple of little fixes to attend to on the old guy, but nothing a bit of aluminium tape couldn’t fix.
Michael spent most of his evening helping the guys that had been less fortunate than us on the day’s shitty roads. The muffler fitted to the Radsters was repaired with beer cans, lock wire and aluminium tape – a pretty cool repair that lasted ok. Team Hot Rod’s transmission sump was beaten flat and resealed – stemming the fluid flow. Desert Rover (a 1967 Vauxhall) received a donor radiator from a Toyota Hilux (square peg – round hole). A couple of cars were terminal this evening including Caroline’s favourite Monster Chef (a Daihatsu box) with burnt valves and most devastatingly Beyond The Black Stump with a failed Diff Centre. This car was cursed from day dot, blowing up the engine just 128kms from home in Sydney on their way to the start line.
The shower today, was one of the best ever!
All in all, a great day in the middle of nowhere, making cow noises, listening to Chariots of Fire and trying to get little whippy to jump the sand hills. We’re off to Winton tomorrow!
