Australian Journey II

... or Weld Our Car (1995)

Nothing much happened today. My first day at work was busy, the roads to and fro free. Just parking is a drama with all the ice!

So, nothing much to tell, I go back to 1995, to Mackkay.
We bought our car - you can see him right behind the funny fish-bin (in Mackkay):



...we bought the (green) car in Sydney, this one:



Oh, this is the car with us, in Broome:



... and started our journey with a trip to The Three Sisters. We stopped to fill the tank and there was a little puddle of gas left!
We drove into the mountains and stopped for the night, got out and lighted a cigarette each (gah, back then!) - there was a little bang! Gas-fire, who knows?

Our route took us southwards, via Barossa Valley, Mt Augusta, inlands Coober Pedy... West, North... some more inland-trips. So guess how many kilometers it took us to Conway NP near Townsville?!
Like for-ever!

And this was where Ingo said, ummm smells like gas?
He went under the car and said, yeah here, it drips.
He touched and said... oh. now it runs!

It was weekend and we stood in the grass!

Clever guy had read in the Lonely Planet for Australia under the section "motorcycles": If you have a small hole in the tank, you can seal it with Tea-Tree-Oil-Soap.

Guess who just washed her face with it? Yep, Ingo sealed it and all was good.

Next stop was said Mackkay. We only found a small one-man-garage who had time and even that guy said: Tuesday. For the weekend why not visit Eungella NP?

We went up there, stood in high grass.
And the rain started!
So hard, the guys in their tents had to move up to us (we slept in the car).

The Tea-Tree-Oil-Soap - did the best job!!!

Tuesday we went and left the car with the guy.
Had brekkie and all and when we came back we found:

Most our stuff in the grass - the car upside-down, leaning (also) on his verandah.

And... he was WELDING our tank! There MUST´ve been still some gas in there, no?!!!
Maybe Aussie-guys do dare that? Bet here it´d be rather unusual!

Mackkay not only has brave mechanics who do fantastic jobs with little tools, no, they also have MEAN BIRDS!

We stood at the red light, walking to the car.
We, pedestrians, definitively had RED.
There was a darn birdie, sitting on a tree beneath, imitating the sound for GREEN!
I hope blind Macckayans know how to differ it from the real signal!

Mackkay and our car (and a bird) - SUCH memories!