Kayak 4 Earth

Steve and Kerrie chat with Sam and Marj McClelland with their Chamberlain 9G
tractor and tent trailer

Day 33- 28/6/07 - On the Road Towards Dirranbandi

Bruce's Report: Dropped Steve 30km down the dirt. As we unloaded the kayak I indicated that the rear tyre was looking a bit "sus". "No worries, she'll be right" Posselt sent me on my way. The grader had been busy mixing the large puddles of water and the soil into an interesting slurry so 4WD came in handy.

Just as I hit the bitumen Steve rang on the satellite phone to say that the tyre was totally flat. Kerrie and I packed up camp and dropped in to pick up the new wheels with the new bearings and ....... they weren't ready. They'd been sent to Brisbane instead of St George. After dropping the trailer at the Dirranbandi Caravan Park I removed a wheel from one of the spare kayaks and we headed up the Wyenbah Road to find Steve.

We found him huddled round a small fire in the lee of a bush sheltering from a very cold wind. After replacing the wheel Steve set off and only managed 10.44km for the day before we headed for Dirranbandi along the black soil road with rain clouds threatening.

We arrived to find Marj and Sam McClelland and their Chamberlain 9G tractor parked at the caravan park. They'd driven their rig at about 40kph up from the Barossa Valley and are heading to a national rally in Biloela. They'd been 3 weeks on the road. We spent some time at the pub chatting with some of the locals.

Steve's Report: Not much achieved today, got another flat tyre. The spares were at Autopro in St George waiting for bearings. There was a bit of history there with the wrong ones arriving and today was no different, the bearings had been sent from Roma to Brisbane. Everything is due in Dirranbandi Friday. The new windscreen that arrived at St George was the wrong one so in all we have not had a lot of luck in this area.

Anyway, it was a very cold, windy day. Bruce was concerned about the road with the trailer so he and Kerrie dropped it at Dirran and came back up with a wheel off the double kayak.

Finally got back on the road after over three hours and only clocked up 10km for the day as rain threatened and the road to town is just dirt. We would have been in a bit of a spot without Farnie's sat phone.