Well, the old ute has done us proud – all the way from Perth to Exmouth with only some minor niggles.
We got prepped and ready at 5am – a truly awful time to be up and about, to be honest, as the sun wasn’t even up.
We got all of our prep finished, checked the straps on the Kayaks one last time and headed off.
The drive is just over 1500km (900 miles), so we took it in turns to drive (apart from Mark, who is still unable to drive like a self sufficient adult…). Even with the breaks and turns, driving for 14 hours straight is pretty tiring – something the local police know only too well:
it was worth it though – . we were treated to an amazing spectacle.
As we drove out onto the cape range, the sun was setting on the west – and as the sun was setting, the moon was rising into a sky that was absolutely alive with light – blues, purples.. it was pretty magical.
The pictures don’t catch the half of how amazing this looks, but hopefully give a bit of an idea:
About 12 hours in, everyone in the car (apart from Jen, naturally) started sniffing and asked ‘can you smell burning?’ We could, and it was – rubber burning.
We couldn’t see anything under the hood, but the problem became clear when we tried to turn into the next roadhouse for fuel – the power steering had failed! Thankfully, the car was fine to drive without it, just a little heavy.
Up on the cape, the roads are basically straight. well… ‘roads’ is a bit generous..
Still, despite the road conditions, despite the power steering, despite being driven for hundreds of miles… the ute delivered us in one piece to turqoise bay:
Not a bad purchase!