Here We Go Again - Chapter 93 - Broome to Barn Hill Station

We have been here a fortnight and enjoyed every minute of it (save the interludes with a certain Toyota dealer). For now, though, it’s time to bug out.

First the walk to the dump point and back. The entire length of the caravan park, unfortunately. It’s not that I do not need the exercise, the trip with “my little friend” as Forbsey was oft to call the “walk of shame”. For this excursion, being as far away as we were, the walk with the capsule is over the broken ground for a significant length of the trip before the bitumen takes over. Dragging the capsule on its wheels is a struggle.

Once emptied the capsule can simply be carried, but whilst it is full the weight requires the use of the trolley wheels. Once replaced, attention can go to the other parts of the bug-out routine.

I am worried about the car fridge. The auxiliary battery does not seem to be coping as I think it should. We also need to drop in at the supermarket and the pharmacy for prescriptions. 

Because Silver Leader and Rose are “dragging the chain”, we can drop in on All Volts, a business that has done us nothing but great things previously in relation to all things caravan and auto electrical, and have the battery checked, on the way to the pharmacy, and we can all meet up on the space beside the supermarket and we can head off.

The check of the battery discovers the worst. The time at Mary Kathleen where the charge dropped and dropped has destroyed the proper function and it will need replacing. With the van attached our serviceman can see significant issues with any replacement given the load, the van fridge places on battery storage. We have had to use the Cruiser battery to manage the power usage and ensuring when we are free camping, we have enough power to get through the night.

His explanation of how the Anderson plugs have been set up in apparent error makes sense, and unless he “re-wires” the batteries we are only another episode short of the same problem. The solution is to wire the main battery to the auxiliary so that when pressure is placed on the Cruiser, both batteries will assist. The load on the auxiliary battery when the fridge is attached and the van batteries are also looking for the charge is significant. When we apply the solar panel to the auxiliary battery everything works in unison now.

The other thing the power incident at Mary Kathleen which triggered most of our issues was to recalibrate the internal power settings to “factory” meaning the system reverted to telling the lithium batteries they were of the gel variety, further putting pressure on the rest of the system (the Cruiser) to cope with loading power. Once the correct settings are re-input the gauges appear to show a quicker pick up of power.

His attention next stretches to the car fridge. The serviceman (I wish i could remember his name) is very quick to suggest the fridge salespeople may be very adept at selling but instructions as to the correct setup and use, fall very short. Settings in the fridge allow for the fridge to discern a low battery and shut off, but mine was set up to continue work regardless of the battery condition. He quickly finds the right setting.

What this does cost us other than the $650 for the hardware and the services, is time. We kept Silver Leader and Rose abreast of the situation and suggested they go on without us, but the call of the air-conditioned supermarket was too strong.

Its well past noon when we get to the supermarket. The scripts are filled with ease and decorum and we are off. Well, we would be if the Silver leader and Rose were here. They had gone for a drive to pass the time and will be a short time before they return.

We are about to head into areas where the internet will be much less than reliable so I look to create a method to be able to keep abreast of material for the blog without the need for handwritten notes. My efforts are fruitless. At least we have plenty of paper and a good olde pen.

On the road and the continual war of the working class and the tourist continues and as seems to occur the tourist, especially the younger ones in those buzz boxes, don’t seem to have any idea about the angst they cause with their antics on the road. In this case, a road train is being held up by an accelerating and decelerating buzz box.

Not sure what the issue is with the buzz box but the road train driver must be getting frustrated. The oncoming traffic gives him no chance to get around. All of a sudden the road train hits the anchors. The vehicle in front has stopped and the road train driver is venting with his horn and white smoke from his wheels. Thankfully the buzz box pulls off the road, probably out of self-preservation and the line of traffic behind, us included, creeps around.

We are just shy of our turn-off towards our destination. The road train is going our way as well. As we turn I could, quite easily, overtake the road train, but discretion is the better part of valour in this case and I suspect that in time his speed may be more than mine. I was proven right as in time the large vehicle got to its cruising speed, in excess of mine and he draws away.

Another road train looms up behind us. Silver Leader and I ready ourselves to let the road train pass when all of a sudden we are approached by a very large load. The first convoy vehicle rounds a corner in front of us, driving straight at us, flashing his lights. We are yet to see the large vehicles, so we continue (at reduced speed). When a second convoy vehicle approaches, we can see the larger ones as we are flagged to the side of the road.

The oversize vehicles in fact take up the entire road. We suspect the trays of these vehicles may have transported some of those very large tipper trucks used by the mines which carry 250 tonnes of ore from the hoppers to the trains heading for the ports.

Once the two vehicles pass we quickly get back to speed. The road train takes much longer.

We are almost to our turnoff by the time the road train catches us. I switch to channel 40 to talk to him about getting him around us. 

The turnoff is coming quickly but so is the road train. If I slow to make the turn the road train will also need to slow. I would rather get him around with the least amount of issue. He suggests I pull off to the right. I comply. He goes past unimpeded and gets on the UHF and thanks us.

For the short disruption to me, I am back on the road and trunigntright towards my destination.

The mangroves of the Broome surrounds have faded to the salt plains and suddenly a line of skinny trees appears on the horizon soon enough we are in a forested area, the road enshrouded in green. A paradox to the vista moments earlier.

Finally, we wander into Barn Hill Station. Here it is not possible to book sites. You turn up and take your luck. Because of our lateness in leaving Broome we miss out on any powered sites. Rose is somewhat miffed at not having a powered site and she lets Silver Leader know it. At the end of the day we did offer to allow them to leave without us but they chose to stay. They will have to suffer without air conditioning unless he gets the generator out and sets it up for her comfort.

Only one problem, generators are not allowed here at certain times, and now is one of those times.

Rose is not a happy camper. At the office, notes on the wall suggest tonight is going to be a super low tide, exposing much of the reef just off the beach. The office also has treats like vanilla slices and chocolate brownies that suggest to Robyn she might have morning tea all day tomorrow in this space.

We head to the beach to see what might be in store tonight and indeed the water level is way back from the high tide mark.

This quick look does not last long, we head back for dinner.

After dinner I look to head back to the beach to get sunset shots and a better look at the exposed reef. Silver Leader and Rose are apparently not interested in this second visit. They have their own bowling green at the Station and tonight is the big bowls tournament we were offered to compete in, on registration but we declined. It appears to have been a good option. The competition is fierce and the standard very high. Way beyond our way less than amateur level

The sunset, as many the sunsets have done, gives many shots of splendour. Not only the sunset but the vista of the reefs as well. Walking back through the park, without a torch, I manage to take a wrong turn, and before I know it I am quite a way out the access road before I turn around and finally find the van.

With our new electrical system in place, we have been given protocols to check what is happening. We still resort to having the fridge on the Cruiser for the night to conserve power for the C-Pap machine but we should be OK now everything is working in sync.

Although there should be no issues, we head into the night with a little trepidation. For the last fortnight, we have been on power at the caravan park, which except for blackouts, handled our requirements. we should, all things being equal and the gauges all showing well in excess of 98% power available, able to make it through the night.

With only the C-Pap machine drawing power, over the next times we are free camping we will, should we have excess available the next time, add further appliances to the mix, perhaps even the fridge.