Zelma’s Trip

After my fry-up I drove back to Iris and Jim’s to pick up a few bits for my trip.  The car I had hired was a red Hyundai something which felt amazingly underpowered in comparison to my MR2 but I wasn’t really overly surprised by this to be fair.

Having collected a few bits I set off and was really enjoying listening to the radio and driving after what felt like a long absence from doing so.  Somewhat miraculously I managed to follow the directions that Mike and Carol gave me and got round Perth and all the way up to the highway I needed which would take me all the way to the turning for Crevantes.

The roads were insane and were -so- long and straight with nothing for mile upon mile other than these clouds of flies, huge ones, and you wondered what to do, realised you couldn’t do anything and then they all splatted against your windscreen.  Weirdly most of them make clear splats though, like they have some kind of see-through blood or something.  I was later advised that they might have been bees and this was their honey or nectar or something which, I must say, didn’t make me feel any better about my insect massacre. 

When I left Perth I was told to, “Watch out for roos”, and I did see one dead at the side of the road.  To be honest if a roo hit my car, or vice versa, I think it would have come off best!  If I did a long drive through Australia by myself I think I’d go insane.  I spent a lot of time singing along to old CDs that Carol had leant me and then laughing at my own jokes.  It was beautiful though, the scenery not my singing and laughing!

So there I was, driving along a -very- long, straight road, singing along to Chris de Burgh (you can’t beat a bit of “Lady in red)” when there was a loud bang and my car decided it had a mind of it own and that it wanted to veer all over the road.  This happened just as some guy was thinking about overtaking me but he quickly decided against the idea.  I managed to pull over and was extremely impressed that I had managed to have a blow out by myself in the middle of nowehre.  Well to me it was the middle of nowhere, there was just bush on every side and a -very- long, straight road with no-one on it other than me.  I got out and looked at the rear driver side tyre which was fine as were the two on the other side.  I was slightly puzzled for a moment before I realised I had not checked the drivers’ side front wheel.  It was very clear that this had made the rather large bang.  I then decided to do the thing any logical person would do i.e. swear, get back into the car, have a cigarette and take photos of myself looking unimpressed whilst figuring out a plan!

 I located the spare tyre but couldn’t for the life of me get the jack out and managed to cut both my
 thumbs doing so.  Not badly at all but it was a bit annoying.  After faffing for some time to no
 avail I decided the best plan was to smoke another cigarette and do pathetic looking stares at all
 the passers by in the hope that one of them would take pity on me. Well when I say all the passers-by
 it was hardly like rush hour in England but there was the odd van full of sheep.  After only half a
 cigarette a guy in a truck pulled up and reversed back towards me.  I went over and explained the
 problem.  He managed to get the jack out in about 10 seconds and then set about changing the wheel.
 He did however say one of the nuts appeared to be awfully tight.  He said he thought it may have
 been put on far too tightly or cross threaded and sure enough it snapped.  He put the spare on, which
 looked slightly dodgy compared to the brand new tyre he had taken off, and put three of the four
 nuts back in.  Half way through this process a woman in a blue car pulled up behind us.  I thought
 this slightly unecessary and then realised she might not have seen him helping me.  As she got out of
 the car she said, “I thought it was you, typical, helping out some young sheila!” and it transpired
 that the guy was her husband and she had wondered where he had got to!  Anyway my wheel was on,
 albeit with three nuts, and they suggested, as it was a Sunday, that I drive to Crevantes
and get it looked at the following day.  I thanked them and then called the hire company who didn’t seem to think there was any problem with driving it around on three wheel nuts, as long as they were on
 tightly.  So that is what I did.

When I arrived at Crevantes Lodge I was pleasantly surprised with the place.  They have a website and, if anyone is thinking of venturing to Crevantes, I would strongly recommend them.  I was in a dorm but was the only person in there so it was like having my own private room, well for the first night at least, and the communal areas were great.  I sorted myself out and went and got some food prior to heading down to the beach to watch the sunset.