Vikings in Australia - Víkingar í Ástralíu

27^th of August. Drive to Drysdale Station.

We left around 9am and drove the 30km or so back to the Gibb River road. Then it was onwards to Drysdale Station to spend a couple of nights. We stopped at the intersection, where the road splits, to Drysdale/Kalumburu and Wyndham. I went out to check things as I do on a regular basis, especially the spare wheels at the back. All seemed to be in order.

We commenced the 60km drive to Drysdale station. About 40km in, I noticed in the rear view mirror that one of the spare wheels wasn’t there anymore. As it turned out, the bolts had shaken loose and the spare fallen off somewhere in that 40km section. We turned around and drove slowly all the way back and then returned looking for the spare wheel. It was nowhere to be seen. Although I wasn’t driving very fast at the time it may have fallen off, it probably went bush! This was the brand new un-used Coopers ST spare tyre. There was nothing more we could do, other than continue to Drysdale. There, they do offer tyre repairs and have new tyres. I checked and they did have a new tyre that would fit, but no rims. After some digging, they dug up an old spare on a rim that I could use, so we settled for that. I then proceeded to mount it on the empty spare wheel carrier, when I realised that the threads on the three bolts that hold it were gone. They had been shaved/shaken away when the other spare was lost. We threw the spare on top of the roof rack and went and camped. Then I used hack saw, hammer and chisel to remove the existing three bolts that were welded to the spare wheel carrier and found three new bolts to use. Although not welded, it’s pretty secure now as I used two bolts to fix it. We shall see how it goes.

Due to all this hard work, we decided to go for dinner at the Drysdale restaurant, so I popped out to book us in at 6:30pm. We arrived just before 6pm and got ourselves some beer and wine. We had ordered the famous Drysdale Hamburgers with the LOT. This is a huge stack of things between two buns. They tasted great, plus the salad bar was also included.

Earlier in the day, while I was banging the bolts on the spare wheel carrier, a man came over, seeking some advice. Seeing my mechanical skills, he decided I was the right person to have a quick look at his camper trailer, spare wheel carrier. Just to advice if he should get it fixed or if it would be fine. I went to have a look and quickly realised that his spare wheel carrier on the camper trailer was about to break off. I told him to check with the guys at the station, to see if they could weld it for him. Told him to remove the bracket and take it to them. This he did and later told us that they would fix it the following day. At dinner, this guy and his wife sat next to use, so we got talking and swapping stories of our travels. After dinner we kept on talking, until Sibba said, “Hey, I think they are waiting for us to leave!” as we were the only dinner guests left. Of course we all obliged and walked over to the campsite. After a while, Sibba asked me how much the meal cost. It was then that I realised that we hadn’t paid for the dinner. So, I walked back and asked if I could pay. The staff was still there, but hadn’t even noticed that we had not paid. So I did the right thing and gave them money, at least I could tell Sibba how much it cost!