After our long day yesterday we awoke to very strong winds whipping up the dust this morning. I cooked breakfast as usual (the standard porridge followed by an espresso coffee using my robot coffee maker) before we did a bit of housekeeping to remove red dust inside and out of the vehicle and cleaned the windscreen.
We didn’t leave camp until 9 a.m. which meant we were about the last to leave (except the Spanish speaking couple who obviously see no need to get to their next camp before dark) and we once again battled the misbehaving vehicle and extremely strong, blustery winds which were blowing us off course as we headed toward Karratha and Dampier. We decided on morning tea at Dampier before moving on southward.
We stopped for lunch on the side of the road, which, coincidently, was the entrance to Sino Iron’s Aerodrome – the Chinese owned airfield that just happens to be in the vicinity of some of Australia’s most important military sites ( Curtin Airforce Base, Exmouth Naval Communications Base, Jindalee over the horizon radar installation) – I’m sure that’s just as coincidental as our stopping there.
The vehicle was really playing up today and a check of the error codes revealed that the RHS Rear Wheel CAN/BUS has a possible mechanical defect. At the moment it’s still driveable but if it gets any worse it may be coming home on the Turtle Express (cheap shot).In any case we made it to the Robe River Rest Area in time for scones and tea (actually a Cherry Ripe and a can of soft drink). We have a perfect view of the outback sky so we will see what the night brings.