What a week!
We got our car back on Friday and headed to Leliyn (Edith Falls) late Saturday. A picture of the falls is above.
It is beautiful there, but hot. So by 9pm it was a balmy 31 degrees and I’m pretty sure it didn’t drop too much overnight. To say I’ve been spoiled by air-con is an understatement, but thankfully my Milwaukee fan rocks.
We wanted to do some exploring while at Edith Falls, so we had a mid-morning swim, chilled out with a few books while we waited for the heat to subside a little. By 5 in the afternoon, we headed off on a small hike to the upper pool and naturally we had to have a dip! There aren’t many places in the NT you can swim (and those that you can, often it’s signed you swim at your own risk) and when it’s hot, a quick dip is all you are after.
After our dip, we continued our hike – completely refreshed! It was a perfect day.
The following day we were off and called into Katherine. Tim noticed an oil leak so we needed to contact Ford. Turns out this was something we could fix, once they knew we couldn’t simply bring the car back.
Tim spent a few hours sorting out the issue and we drove out of Katherine excited about the adventures ahead!
We got 30 minutes out of Katherine, before deciding to return to have the car looked at. It does happen in threes. A quick refresh – in the past few months, the gear box has been reconditioned, the fuel pump has been replaced and now, it seems something in the back end may need to be looked at.
I started to think the NT doesn’t want to see us leave, but before we were able to get too upset with the prospect of staying put for a few days, we ran into some travel friends at the servo. Of all places. 🙂
We have caught up with these friends a few times on the trip and to see them in Katherine was a surprise. More shocking was the announcement that they have recently been in an accident where their car, and it seems their van are a write off.
Talk about perspective. We have a minor (perhaps more) car issue, they are at the stage of having to sort out where their insurance will leave them.
Let’s face it, there’s not much between Kununurra and Broome and being late spring, it’s the last place I want to be stuck on the side of the road while waiting for assistance. So for now, Katherine is where we are. 🙂