It was a tense day in the Siegersma travelling rig this morning. I’ll try my very best to recount the events without incriminations or blame.

We hit the road at 7:30am, having realised that we all travel better and further if we set off early. It is light at 4am so it’s no hardship.
There are 4 petrol stations in town so we went to the Coles Express the newest and busiest. They had no LPG gas and upon asking, we were told there was no gas until the next town, nearly 300 km away. No problem we thought and set off with a full tank of unleaded petrol, conscious that we would definitely need to fill up at the next town.
In the car and on our way, I punched various marked “towns” into the GPS searching for petrol stations. Nothing. With a few quick calculations based on our fuel consumption so far we weren’t going to make it to the next town. We sat in Chris’s slipstream and we lowered our speed to under 90 km. Ray was happy to take our chances but after calculating that we would probably run out at about 50 km from the town we were stopping at, I would have to wait with the car and van in 43 degree heat for the hour it would take Chris and Ray to return with a Jerry can, I knew it was ludicrous.
I made the decision that we would immediately need to turn around, travel back the 40 km to Halls Creek, buy petrol and Jerry cans, then hit the road again. So we did…
Along the way we copped a stone chip in the windscreen that we will need to get fixed, courtesy of a passing road train.
Well, an extra $180 later on plastic Jerry cans (not counting the fuel to go back and then back again), we arrived at Fitzroy Crossing Lodge.

I must add that about 20 minutes out of Fitzroy Crossing, Ray pulled into a truck stop and in 43 degree heat he emptied one of the jerrycans into the petrol tank. He didn’t want either one of us to be forever right or wrong about making it on one tank of petrol and after spending all that money and time travelling back with frosty silence in the car it was the best thing for him to do to repair what could have easily turned into a travelling disaster and an ongoing blame war.

Fitzroy Crossing Lodge looked like an oasis. A hefty nightly fee of $55 but we were all a little “testy” by now that we were hardly expecting a bargain to come our way.
Chris and Vicki were set up and enjoying a cold drink so we pulled up and chatted. What happened next was so out of character for our holiday experiences that I don’t even want to describe it. Let’s just say an overexcited caretaker on a power trip is in residence and decided to come over and give us directions to where we should be setting up which differed to those that we got from the reception.
Being a day that we were all a bit “testy”, Ray argued the point (nicely) which the caretaker didn’t appreciate.
We spent the evening being watched by the caravan park caretaker/policeman on his 4 wheeler.
Very unfriendly man, but luckily the first we have come across. Maybe the isolation has got to him.
We went out to Geiki Gorge to take a look around. It was in the low 40’s so walking was very uncomfortable. Chris and Vicki and kids went on the river cruise further into the gorge. We went back to camp and started Happy Hour early. We needed a little time alone to reset.
PS We went for a drive around town. It is largely an indigenous community. I took a photo of the list of shop fronts in their local shopping centre. Add a police station, and a Department of Child Protection and that’s the town. Such a small place!
On to Derby tomorrow. We are going fishing off the pier where Dad caught a baby shark on a handline, when I was in grade 4. That’s about 33 years ago! We are going back to get its brother.

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