We weren’t sure if the car would make it back to Derby. It took us two days to crawl 270 kms but we made it. We had so many caravanners stop to ask if they could help which was very heartening.

A few kilometres from town, our phones kicked in and I was able to call the four wheel drive repair shop and let them know we were coming in. I also rang the Kimberley Entrance Caravan Park and asked for a drive through site, explaining that we couldn’t reverse the car. They said they would try their best and when we arrived, they were as good as their word directing us to a nice, long shady site. That was a huge relief. 

We had thought about going straight back to Liz and Pete’s place as they had said we were welcome to stay as long as we wanted. But we felt it was unfair and, besides, if we were going to be without a car for a few days, we could walk to shops etc from the camping ground. By coincidence,  Liz text me as we drove into town asking where we were and what we were doing. I briefly explained and she told us to come to their place to camp. However, we had already paid for two nights in town.

As it worked out, the news wasn’t good and we were going to be without our car for far longer than a few days. We don’t know if it was the near miss or just the rough Gibb River Road that caused the damage but there was a hole in the transmission line which had leaked all the oil, wrecked the gear box and damaged the brakes. We were told that it needed an automatic transmission specialist to repair it. In other words, our car parts had to be flown to Perth, repaired by a specialist,  then flown back to Derby and put back into the car. This was expected to take about a month and cost around $10,000. An alternative was to have the car towed back to Perth and put the caravan on a truck.

Three weeks into our big trip and it looked like we were going back home.

We updated Liz and Pete on the situation.  Within half an hour, they text to say ‘pack up your van, you’re coming to us.’ We had only had one night in the caravan park but there was no argument to be had it seemed.They drove via the 4wd repair shop, collected our special towball for the van and towed us back to their place. On the way they dropped John off at Kimberley Car Hire so he could pick up a little car for us to run around town in.  Although we hated imposing, it was a relief; the night before when we went to cook dinner, we realised our pots and pans were in the car at the 4wd yard. Then I gathered all our dirty washing to take to the laundry and realised our soap powder was also in the car.

We set up camp at Liz and Pete’s and had access to anything we needed once again. We had so much to think about and sort out. We spent hours on the phone to the RAC, insurance companies, 4wd specialists and more. All it did was confuse us even more. Liz invited us to go out fishing for cherabins with them in the afternoon. Even though we had no idea what she was talking about, we said we would go.

The four of us piled into their ute along with another friend of theirs, eskys, fishing gear, chairs and more. Pete drove us about 70kms out of Derby then off the road, across dirt tracks and through bush. It was a very bumpy ride but it was worth it. We stopped at a lovely, little creek and set ourselves up on the bank. The others did some ‘cherabining’ which they explained was using nets and handlines to catch cherabins – prawn like sea creatures. I was happy to just watch and enjoy the view.

During the evening, they caught a bucket full of the creatures. They also caught a few undersized barramundi which they threw back. Meantime, I sat by the campfire sipping wine.

The others finally dragged themselves away from the creek after dark and we fought our way back through the bush. Unfortunately,  it was so dark that we ploughed into a hole and got stuck!  Liz and I were sent off with torches to find branches while the men (ie Pete) worked under the car to find ways to get out of the ditch. It took a lot of patience and a lot of skill to get us out of there but within an hour we were on our way home where they cooked the poor cherabins on the campfire and had a feast.

We had a great evening and it certainly kept our minds off our car troubles!