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Home Valley was our next planned stop only 300 odd kilometers away but would be a full day of driving. Made it to Ellenbrae Station, a lush green garden full of tiny little finches for scones with fresh cream and jam. Planned to get to Home Valley by 4.30 in time to set up and have dinner before it got too dark.
Road started to get a little rough but taking it nice and easy before the back tyre blew. No problem only 30 km to go and once we found the jack and with the help of a German couple who stopped to help we were back on the road again. Liam asked "what are the chances of another one?" I confidently assured him that would be pretty unlucky.
Ten minutes later Rob and I both felt sick in the stomach, another flat this time the front tyre. Now regretting the decision not to leave some of the food behind and squeeze in a second spare.
Mike a regular Kimberley traveller stopped first but he didn't have a suitable spare. Next Vin and Robyn and their 4 kids but they had already used their only spare. Thankfully, Jamie and Casey who were heading for Kununurra stopped who did have a spare so things started to look promising again.
The others headed onto Home Valley and we changed the tyre only to find it didn't fit. Plan B Jamie, Casey and I drove in to Home Valley hoping they would have a work shop, luckily they did but it was shut. Plan C Jamie would drive back and pick up Rob and the kids. Flat battery, managed to convince a workman to have a look, not the battery faulty starter motor. Plan D find one of the campers who had stopped for us earlier. By now it was dark but amazingly I found Vin and instantly burst into tears. Thankfully, he wasn't put off by a neurotic woman and borrowed a spare from some Bendigo boys and we drove out carefully avoiding roos to rescue Rob and the kids. Izzy, Liam and Vorney thought it was great fun. Stranded for 5 hours in the dark singing songs and reading stories to each other while feasting on all the snack food we had in the car.
In the daylight, Home Valley was an oasis of green with a magnificent view of the Cockburn Ranges as the backdrop. Great place to be stranded, it is one of the stations who obtain a lot of their income from tourism so hot showers, washing machines, a pool, bar and a restaurant.
Early Saturday morning Casey got a lift into Kununurra where she would bus it onto Darwin, leaving Jamie to sort out their car.
Kids excited as the horse stables were close and spent hours patting and feeding them through the fence. One was a bit too hungry and tried to gobble up Liam's finger, luckily still intact but quite sore!
That night friends of Vin and Robyn arrived in the dark a little flustered, they had been spewing poles out and had to back track 40 km to collect them all. After pooling our dinners together we all headed to the restaurant for a drink and dessert. Mike's friend Dave was playing and at the end of one of his sets he invited Vin and Izzy to jam with him.
Refreshed and with new tyres we said our goodbyes and headed back onto the dirt.
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- comments
brian you can"t go outback and not have a couple of blown tyres and be stranded...you've made it, the trip was worthwhile if nothing else happens