DAY 41 – Fitzroy Crossing

Good Morning Fitzroy Crossing!

 
Low 14°c (57°F) – High 34°c (93°F)
10km
 
So a little update from yesterday in that while I was posting yesterday’s news a couple and their son rolled in quite late and set up in the dark on the site next to us.  After heading up to the hotel for dinner they strolled back for a couple of drinks at camp and we started chatting.  It seems Daryl has an interest in working on cars and was keen to see if he could help us locate the issue with our lights.  Cue 2 hours of crawling around under the car, testing of fuses, checking wiring etc.  He did locate a blown fuse but no-one was sure what it was for and although we didn’t fix the issue we did manage to figure out a number of things it wasn’t which would certainly help tomorrow.  Although a bit frustrated that he couldn’t fix it for us, we had a lovely chat with them and were really appreciative of the help.  I think in part it was nice to be able to go armed with some information instead of walking in to the repairer saying I don’t know where you should start.
 
Fast forward a few hours and we were awake early this morning, if you don’t count all the hours we both didn’t sleep worrying about what today would bring.  We had everything packed up and arrived at the repairers around 8.00am having been told they open at 7.00.  By the time we got there I had run pretty much every scenario in the book including an all day expensive repair and the “I’m sorry we can’t fix it you’ll have to get it done in Perth”.  I’m not great in stressful situations where I have to put my faith in people I don’t know and I suppose the fact that the people I didn’t know came from a town that has a poor reputation didn’t help either.
 
Unfortunately by the time we got there they had started another job and we had to wait our turn, which is fine, so we parked just up from their workshop next to a school bus (yes this is what school buses look like here), opened up the van and the three of us sat and waited.  Well in truth Kitty slept and Shane and I read books.  Just under ¾ hour later a young Filipino guy knocks at the door to say he’s come to check the issue.  We give him the background on what happened and what we checked the night before.  He replaced the blown fuse and then spent some time behind and under the car looking for the issue.  At about 9.15 he located a loose connection under the car, repaired it and bingo – we had lights again.  Shane went in to pay as I prepared everything to get going and he returned with a sombre look on his face.  Of course I anticipated the worst and then he handed me the bill - $35.  Don’t worry – he’ll pay for tricking me hahahaha.
 
Because we had no idea how long the repairs would take and therefore no idea if we could hit the road, coupled with the fact that the expected temperature was 34 degrees we had talked about what to do and decided to head back to the Fitzroy River Lodge and stay an extra night making the most of the high temperature and breeze to get all of our washing done (of which there was a lot) and to bath Kitty so that when we got to Broome tomorrow we could just spend our time sightseeing rather than half a day of maintenance. 
 
We were back at camp by 9.36am to find that Daryl & family were packing up to head off again.  He was keen to know what the issue was and kept apologizing that he wasn’t able to help.  We kept assuring him that it was a great help and we really appreciated it.  Having fare-welled them and got ourselves set up the rest of the day was washing clothes and Kitty for me while Shane headed out to the local IGA to pick up a couple of things we needed.  I like to do a bit of washing every 3-4 days just to keep on top of it and so it doesn’t take very long to get done, but it had been a week and a week’s worth of washing in a 2kg twin tub washing machine isn’t a 5 minute job.  Neither is bathing old “Speedbump” (one of the many nicknames we’ve given Kitty because she always manages to lie right in the road of where you want to walk).
 
Given we hadn’t been out to have a look around Fitzroy Crossing and there hadn’t been many photos at all taken, I had to photograph a few of the sights around the park including a massive big green tree frog who had taken up residence in our wastewater outlet (that pipe was about 4 inches wide to give you an idea of how large he was) and so we had to run the water on the ground, a flock of birds that constantly in and out of a tree next to our van to feed in the grass – they looked like the tree was dropping its leaves when they all swooped down to the ground, and a small herd of cattle who amble around the grounds all day.  The sunset wasn’t anything particularly impressive tonight as there was no cloud at all, however the late light was incredibly dark red and made a lovely backdrop for the deluxe campsites occupied by a bus load of tourists exploring the Kimberley region.
 

It was a beautiful night to just sit outside and enjoy the warmth, a glass of wine and chat about life and the universe.  We finally headed inside around 9.00pm after packing everything away in preparation for a bit trip tomorrow.