First stop, breakfast...
Where the booger made an appearance... Ladybirds enjoying the show - Mandy in the yellow shirt seemed particularly grossed out!!
Driver briefing...
And heading out onto the road...
Bitumen for the first while...
And a while longer...
Maybe a bit more...
Angus was having the morning navigation stint...
Damian took the first drive...
Finally, dirt!!
So much dirt, you can't see out the back!!
Glorious day for it...
Some rough stuff floating around...
Bill from Doris the Bombodore poses for the boys as they cruise past...
Some narrow tracks...
Some wide tracks...
And lots and lots of flat land...
The boys having a great morning!!
Fun stop at a station where kids attend school of the air...
Some creek crossings... No water to be seen though!!
Vicki from Clowns doing a sterling job as gatekeeper!!
More dirt...
Before finally arriving at Pack Saddle for lunch...
The K&N pre-charger (air cleaner cover) earned its keep!!
The Pack Saddle Roadhouse...
Lining up to head out for the afternoon session...
Very briefly on bitumen...
Angus driving...
Damian navigating (looking very serious - it's a serious job!!)
Giggle still smiling in the back...
The tracks were pretty good for the first part...
Before gradually getting more rough...
Some ruts to avoid...
And some smooth sailing...
Long rocky roads...
Past old farmhouses...
As the afternoon progressed, the tracks got more perilous...
Lots of potholes and ruts to avoid...
Following the fenceline for a while...
Ooh look... a road with a bend in it!!
Another creek crossing - deep and sandy, but Booger Mobile went through no worries...
Past Team Bender who had stopped for a while...
Onto some longer stretches...
Like this one!!
More ruts...
And bumps...
And sandy creek (bed) crossings...
The only non-flat feature...
Another sandy creek crossing!!
Very dusty out the back still!!
This is the creek... bone dry!!
The afternoon had turned savage, and less pleasant than the boys would like... it shows on their faces...
Damian looking grim...
Some smoother roads...
Another dry creek bed...
And yet more ruts!!
This was a long section - about 50km longer than the morning section!!
Some hills in the distance...
Ruts...
The marker for a farmhouse/property... Pretty remote place!!
More sneaky, nasty ruts...
Putting in the spare 11L of fuel...
Back on bitumen...
To the Mundi Mundi lookout, where you can look out over land and see the curvature of the earth!!
Booger Mobile at the lookout...
And to the Silverton Pub, where Mad Max was filmed...
Interceptor VW...
Onto bitumen for the last 20km or so back to Broken Hill...
So, why were Angus and Damian looking so grim? The afternoon section included some massive, unmarked ruts on the road, the first of which was hit pretty hard... Booger Mobile made it through the remainder of the afternoon, but Damian noticed that there appeared to be some damage to the front end - the tyres, for example, appear to both be facing slightly outwards... Here's the driver's side tyre...
And the passenger side tyre!!
Booger is still happy on the roof though...
The dinner venue was the same hotel the boys were staying at, so that was a bonus...
Booger Mobile watching over the esCarpadians...
In the morning, Damian will take Booger Mobile to the mechanics for a check to find out exactly what's wrong - whether it's damage, or simply things being knocked out of alignment...
Of course, this means that the boys will have no choice but to follow the bitumen on day 2 - assuming that whatever is wrong with Booger Mobile can be fixed in time.
After such a promising start, this is not what the boys wanted... There will be an update tomorrow with the results, and a full blog post tomorrow night as per usual.
Stay tuned…
The main thing is that you guys are okay.
ReplyDeleteBooger is repairable.
At least you (hopefully) didn't snap your shocks! Must have been some seriously nasty ruts out there!!
ReplyDelete