We did manage to drive away, Sunday morning, a very cold and teary moment. I felt like a beast, tearing away at the heart of the family just for some crazy dream. Taking us away from Jan, from ‘home’. We sniffled all the way down the freeway, and then by the time we got past the urban sprawl started to feel like we were really doing this thing.
A few moments of doubt, I confess. Is this the craziest of all my crazy schemes and obsessions? Have I gone just too far this time?
About one hour out of Melbourne the cruise control drops off. Just stopped, no reason. The revs dropped and as I reset the button there was just a whiff of electrical smell. We pulled over in the dark, fished out the torch, lifted the bonnet, cursing. How would this be, making it all the way to…. Sunbury before the car cacks itself?
Under the bonnet all looked as it should. No tell tale signs or smells. So we pressed on, keeping an eye out for smoke billowing from the bonnet. Mildura for lunch, Burra for afternoon tea - very nice Cornish pastie. Well, we thought - how far can we get today? We got to Port Pirrie at dusk and decided Port Augusta was a better option.
Checked into a cheap hotel, whipped out the laptop to send a message to the world - no connection possible. In brief, the Satellite phone modem was auto-switching and blocking any other modem from connecting. It was Sunday so no chance of calling anyone to find out which mysterious tab setting to fiddle with. Dreadful night not sleeping, feeling ill with stress and anxiety.
Monday morning, onto the road and off we go. Towards Woomera, as it gets to office hours in Darwin, we ring the shipping company to see if our deadline in Darwin has changed. They had forewarned that their schedule could be rather flexible. Kylie gave us the news straight away - the ship is in dry dock, the service will be delayed by at least five days, call again later in the week, good bye!
Great. The ship to Dili isn’t running. The laptop isn’t working. The car is playing up. And all on Day 1.
So much for urgency. We had driven over 1,000 k’s in a day to try to meet a deadline that no longer exists. We drove in to Woomera, hung around in shock, conferred and then decided to get to Alice Springs anyway.
