Day 51, 21 August 2009, Karratha to Exmouth

We left Karratha on a longish drive (576 km.) south to Coral Bay.

Pam sat in the front seat with her swollen and throbbing foot propped up on a bucket, supported by cushions and wrapped in an ice pack.

Our first stop was at the Nanutarra Road House, the last fuelling point before Tom Price and Paraburdoo mines. The place was run by a zoftic, hair-netted woman straight out of Hansel and Gretel. Her backpacker employee was cowed to the point where he had lost the ability to toast sandwiches. Our hostess was a benchmark of efficiency, not even allowing her frequent sneezes to interrupt her food preparation. Fuel was $1.79 and the food prices were the highest we've struck anywhere. $18.95 for a hamburger. $7.95 for a cheese sandwich etc. As Pam was immobile, we elected to eat inside. Turned out the posted prices were only for takeaway. Enjoying the ambience of the roadhouse naturally attracted a stiff premium.

My cheese sandwich wound up costing $9.95. Pam's was correspondingly more as it also contained ham and tomato. Apparently actually melting the cheese would have involved yet another surcharge (no doubt requiring Bruinhilda's direct intervention) so we satisified ourselves with what was delivered.

Pat was able to process his feelings about the roadhouse as we drove along, for the next three hours or so. Took Pam's mind off her foot.

The next fuelling stop was another 226 k. south at Minilya Roadhouse. Expensive fuel, but a nice enough place. At the back were rows and rows of dongas. We puzzled about why, but had travelled on before we got around to asking why there was housing for several hundred workers. Road construction? Mining?

Minilya is 141 from Carnarvon, several hundred km. from Tom Price and Parraburdoo and we couldn't detect anything else around.

Incidently a donga is a small living quarter, on the style of an Atco hut. Apparently you need to be careful when selecting your donga. An actual ad (http://www.hotfrog.com.au/Companies/donga-australia-com_1499558) offers

"Fully engineered relocatable Dongas. These are not shipping containers, or modified coolrooms. Our Dongas come fully lined, insulated, pre-wired, sliding glass door, windows and floor coverings." Wouldn't you be disappointed to find your accommodation for the next two years was a reconditioned shipping container?

At Miliya we rang Coral Bay but were told there was no accommodation available so we changed our plans and decided to head further north to Exmouth.

Minilya is at the base of the North West Cape, with Coral Bay about half way up and Exmouth right at the northern tip. This leg actually took us over the Crossed Tropic of Capricorn twice.

About 70 km. out of Exmouth, I noticed that the car was losing acceleration on the hills.

"Oh well, I thought. Sure we're in the middle of absolutely nowhere, with almost no traffic and Pam's got a sprained ankle. Problems with a car normally just fix themselves. I wonder if you can eat spinifex?"

Unfortunately, my optimism was unfounded.

It became difficult to get the engine to run at anything above an idle. Pumping the accelerator gave a little burst of energy that quickly disappeared. Our speed dropped from 90 to 80 to 70 and finally down to about 30. What little traffic there was, built up in a long, angry queue behind us.

After a while longer I found a setting just above idle that at least kept us going. I considered stopping but there was no shoulder to speak of and I was worried we wouldn't get going again.

Pam started thinking of those urban legends, where the car breaks down on the moors, and the partner says, "You stay here, under a blanket, don't let anyone in." The homicidal maniac is on the loose, then the pounding noise starts... (But at least she had the crutches, for defence, and the chance to get one good kick in.)

We finally made it into Exmouth, got the van into the caravan park and were able to locate a mechanic, all without turning off the engine. The mechanic had a quick look and diagnosed a crook fuel pump. The car was certainly fuel starved and I had hoped for a blocked fuel filter. As the problem disappeared when the engine cooled down, the fuel pump became the more likely explanation.

Naturally, all this happened on a Friday arvo, so the part can't be ordered till Monday and the work is scheduled for Wednesday.

While discussing the matter with locals and visitors at the pub across the road we all agreed that if you have to be stuck somewhere, Exmouth isn't a bad place.

We got a really nice van site and I lashed out for an en-suite.

We finished the day at the barbecue where I shared the plate with three young Chinese blokes. They are painters and decorators, on a working holiday in Australia. I warned them of the dangers of working holidays.

Mine's been going on for 35 years.