Driving Ms. Mary: Jeff Ruins the Day, Kinda

Yesterday was a bit of an adventure. A bit more of an adventure than I would have liked.

It started out normally enough, Mary had decided to ride with me from Broome to Darwin, so we packed up, bought some food and ice for the esky (that's what they call coolers down here). The first item of interest was a random rest stop with a really big hollow tree, but it was still alive, very cool. After that, more driving, and then Fitzroy Crossing and Geike Gorge. We went on a small hike through the gorge and back, man was it hot. Then we continued on our way.

A little more than an hour later, I think it was around 6:30 or so (the sun sets at 6:00 in WA this time of year), the cruise control shut off. I looked down at the instrument panel, and tried to turn cruise control back on, but it wouldn't go. I tried to give the car some gas, but that didn't work either, that's when I looked at the fuel gauge, for the first time in a long time. We were out of petrol (that's what they call gas down here). Shit. We were over 100 kilometers from the nearest town, and cars don't pass by too often in Western Australia. Fortunately, right after we ran out of gas, everything started to go our way.

There was a car in front of us that pulled over after frantic signaling from me, and inside it were two very nice German guys (Marcus and Ruben) that were willing to lend a hand. So Mary and I piled into their car, and we went in search of petrol. We had decided our best bet was a 24-hour campground called Mary Pool, which ended up being about 80 kilometers away. 20 kilometers into the journey, we hit a kangaroo. As luck would have it, only the left turn signal was broken, and the passenger-side door was a little wonky. We got off easy on that one.

At Mary Pool, the first people we tried only had a small jerrycan (5 liters), with only a liter of fuel. The second group was much larger, and they were running generators, so they had 20 liters of spare fuel, and sold it to use. Unfortunately, they gave it to us in an oil barrel, and all we had to funnel it into the car was a cut-off soda bottle. We tested out the soda bottle on the German's car, but we decided it wouldn't work, so we went back to the first guy (later I found out his name was Tony), and borrowed his small jerrycan as well.

The drive back to the car was uneventful but long. Once there, we poured the petrol bit by bit into the jerrycan, and used it to pour into the car. It was quite the production, with Mary glowering at me the whole time (not really). With the gas in our car, we said our goodbyes to the Germans, but planned to see them again when we all got to Darwin.

Mary and I hopped in the car, but decided that instead of driving straight to Halls Creek, we should go by Mary Pool again to inquire after more petrol (it would suck to run out of gas again). When we got there, we didn't find any more petrol, but Tony (the guy who loaned us the jerrycan) suggested we stay the night there, and eat dinner with him and his friends (he was traveling with two girls and a guy, all in their 20s, he was probably in his 60s or so). Mary liked the idea, and it sounded good to me as well, so we did. After dinner there was much drinking, and we played the game where everyone gets a famous person/character on their forehead that they have to guess using only yes or no questions. I was Paul McCartney, and managed to guess mine second. The other young guy took the longest, he was Crocodile Dundee. I went to sleep soon after I guessed mine, or at least got into one of the hammocks they had set up for us (with mosquito nets even!), I didn't really sleep at all. Mary and Tony stayed up talking and drinking until it was time to go (around 6 AM). I think that might have been one of the reasons I didn't get much sleep.

We asked around one last time for more petrol, but no one had any, so we had to make it on what we had. That was a long 100 km, driving at 70 kph. Mary seemed high-energy right before we left, but as soon as we got in the car she zonked out. We made it to the petrol station fine, with about 5 liters to spare. We were both pretty destroyed from having stayed up all night, and I decided we should go to the caravan park where we were initially planning to stay, and nap/shower, before heading on to Kununurra (think Ka-nu-NA-ra, but don't ask me why). The Carvan Park people were really nice, and set us up with a single and added a bed for me on the floor (they had already charged me for last night when we didn't show up). I still didn't really sleep, but the shower was nice.

Mary took the whole thing pretty well, considering. I mean, we're still on speaking terms. :) In all seriousness, she claims it was a positive experience on the whole. Not that that really makes me feel any better about it.

Moral of the story: Always fuel up when you can. Especially if you're under half a tank of petrol. ESPECIALLY if you're traveling in Western Australia. Especially if you don't want to look like an idiot. And finally, especially if you don't have the good luck part of my bad-luck-good-luck.