Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Adventures Galore

I have been thinking lately that I have been doing a lot oframbling, and not so much Adventure telling, and to be honest, there hasn't been that many adventures worthy of telling. That was all until Emma and I decided to take a little road trip to Brisbane in the beast we call Clemmy.

She's a good car, always has been, but I've got to say that 2 years living outsides mum's place and 6 months living at the beach in Maroubra haven't done her any favours. As we learnt in the Easter Distributor Disaster the petrol gauge does not work these days, and unfortunately the list of things that are not working is getting longer. So when Emma and I got in the car after work on Friday to start the journey there was a bit of a Clemmy Orientation Speech that went on. Emelie has had it, as have Kim and Shelley, and to their credit no one has ever complained that there is no internal light, the headlights are broken, the water spray things for the windscreen don't work so you have to wind down the window (if you can) and pour water from a bottle in an effort to keep this blog short I will stop.. but you get the idea.

Anyway, I digress, back to the adventure. Emma and I left George Street just after 4 and drove straight into the biggest traffic jam ever, got to love Sydney on a Friday night, after all that was negotiated we hit the open road. We opted for the two-hours-on-two-hours-off road trip method, which I think works quite well, but am definitely open to discussion, but seriously, how else are you going to tackle a 12 hour drive in 16 hours?

Anyway, all was going well until about 1.30, we found ourselves in the terrible position of being low, like LOW on gas and stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no petrol stations open and no idea when we were going to find the next one. I prayed. A lot. When we were about 30km over what my tank usually gives me we came across a shop that was open, it was about 2am by this stage. The lovely man informed us that we were 38km away from the nearest open garage there was no way that Clemmy was even going to make it down the road, let alone into the next town.

We met a kind local, who offered that we go to his place and grab some of his fuel, he said he had some spare in the garage. He said that we shouldn't worry, that there was no one at the house, he assured us that he was totally safe... kind as the offer was, we took the other other alternative available, we parked outside the bowser and waiting for help to come. It did, at about 6am. I was never a girl scout, and brownies was always more about the food than it was survival tactics, but I was still prepared. I had a sleeping bag, warm socks and a warm cup of tea.. what more could a girl need (aside from fuel that is :-)

Anyway, the photos are below.. well, they will be when blogger decides to behave... it was a great trip and defiantly one that I will remember. We finally got into Brisbane at about 8.30am and was home with my mum eating toast by 9.30. The rest of the weekend was more amazing that I can possibly tell you, and there were more miracles and more lovely-ness that I can possibly begin to explain. I love my family, they are the best in the world.

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