Balranald to Hay

We were on the road by 9:30 having already seen a sacred kingfisher up close. It had flown into a nearby motel room and stunned itself and been found by the cleaner who showed us as we were leaving our room.

We were happily on the road about 30 km from Hay when the Prado suddenly lost power and Trev pulled in as the motor cut out. Both our phones were showing no signal so it was unfortunate timing for this.

Luckily we found a Good Samaritan farmer who, despite his difficult morning already, pulled over and helped us out by offering his high Ute bed for Trev to stand on to ring for roadside assistance with the weak 3G he then was able to use. He then towed us 200m down the road to a roadside stop where we waited for the NRMA. Thank heavens for the RAA and their brother organisations in other states. Our farmer friend (Tom) even rang the NRMA guy himself as well (he knew him) to help the process along.

Unfortunately he had just taken another call so 4 hours were spent waiting in cold and rainy weather. Luckily we had a thermos of hot water and food on board so we were ok.

When the NRMA guy arrived it was in a tow truck and he basically immediately dragged the Prado on to the truck and gave us all a lift into Hay. (He could have taken 6 passengers in his truck!)

A bit more time looking at the vehicle in Hay and they decided it was a problem with fuel between the two tanks. The theory is that if we can keep our top tank with fuel in it we should be able to keep on going and get the problem properly solved and fixed once we get home.

Filling is now a challenge. Trev took about 20 min to put in 80 litres after we left the repair shop!

We decided to stay in a motel in Hay and found a room no worries.

We had a bit of a walk, read some historical info, admired the sculptures and old Cobb and Co Coach and the mural showing the paddle steamer Pevensey. (It was the Pevensey rest area we spent our time in today)

The positive was that some of our QLD relatives (Ruth, Charlie, Cooper and Maddy) were also staying in Hay tonight, so we all ended up having a lovely catch up over dinner at the RSL Club along with a good meal. (Thanks to Sue Diment for letting us know)

It’s lucky we were not pushing urgently for a long distance today. As long as we have no further troubles we should still make it in time for our booked accommodation on Friday and the first race on Saturday.