Up up and away

We have found the sunshine!
It was with great trepidation that we peeped out at the sky this morning – but our luck has turned. The skies were brighter – still a bit cloudy but definitely brighter! Once on our way we had to stop – but not for any serious problem – I just had to take a last photo of a group of emu. We saw quite a few of them as we drove along but I finally managed to persuade my driver to stop long enough for me to get my photo!

When we stopped in a rather attractive parking bay for our lunch we were greeted by the strange cry of a fairly large bird known as the “Happy Jack” I think this bird is also the apostle bird but without my bird book to check … “Happy Jack” will do for now!

There were four birds and they were very brave and had obviously found that travellers that stopped here were only too willing to share their lunches! They were happy with a little bit of bread crust that Colin gave them.

Half way between Port Augusta and Woomera with 100 kilometers to go in either direction to reach a town, a warning light came on. Ooops!

We stopped the vehicle and I searched through the car manual and found what the warning light meant – water in the fuel filter. Colin started to panic after looking under the bonnet – he could not identify the fuel filter. I came to the rescue once again using the manual and showed him a sketch of the thing and read out what to do to drain and bleed it. The new steps we had bought to be able to access the bed in the camper trailer (have you ever tried to climb up round ladder runnels in bare feet?) came in very useful because the 4x4 is so high!

Half an hour later we were on our way and the light was out. Yes, there was water in the fuel.

Unfortunately the fix did not last for very long and we had 40k to reach Woomera when it came on again.
We limped in to the caravan park and will drain the filter again in the morning and purchase a replacement filter as soon as possible – its Sunday tomorrow so that will have to be Monday! Steven rang us and we explained our problem and it turns out to be the same problem that he encountered and was why he had the vehicle serviced only two days before we left home and the mechanics said they had fixed the problem. Since they would have replaced all filters this could be why we had no problems until today. The vehicle must have been filled with contaminated fuel at some time.

Woomera - used to be where Great Britain tested rockets so there is a rocket on display at the entrance to the town.
Once our vehicle was unpacked for the night I took the tripod and camera and dragged Colin out for a walk – I wanted to catch an outback sunset without power lines so I had to cross over the road. It got colder and colder as we waited for the sun to go down – but it was worth it!

This is one of the many shots I took. Its a big sky out here!
Incidentally you may have found out already , but if not, click on the picture and it will be shown larger. Hit the "back" arrow at the top of the screen and you will return to the blog.

AJ