RV FEATURE
We finally get through to Sgt George , but he has more bad news .
“ The recovery team couldn ’ t find you ,” he says . “ They went to the historic hospital site . You do know it ’ s on the other side of the road .”
LESSON 4 Read tourist road signs carefully
Oops . That ’ s the polite version of what came out of my mouth . I ’ m sure I didn ’ t read that sign wrong . But we ’ ll deal with that later .
“ The team used your GPS coordinates , but they couldn ’ t get down the track in the tow truck ,” he adds . “ They will give it another crack tomorrow .”
Tomorrow ? I ask Sgt George if he knows who the landowner is . Could he help ?
I don ’ t know why that gem of commonsense didn ’ t surface earlier .
We have pinpointed our location on an unsealed track heading west to Western Cedar Creek .
“ Call me back in 30 minutes .”
We go through the calling rigmarole again and Sgt George is beaming down the line .
“ Noel Mitchel from Birdum Creek Station is coming to help ,” he says . “ He ’ s only about 20 minutes away .”
Sunset ... as viewed through their Jayco windscreen .
I nearly cry . Mind you , we ’ re better off than others might have been . We have plenty of food and water . It ’ s just not the ideal free camp . We ’ re not ‘ free ’ by any means .
Twenty minutes later , coming down the sandy track ahead of us , is a vehicle . It ’ s the oldest bucket of bolts and the best-looking Nissan Navara farm ute you can imagine . And Noel . What a champion . He must have been shaking his head when he saw us .
Turns out the track we are on leads to his station … just 100m along is the gate . And this is the fourth time this year he ’ s had to get someone out of a ditch .
Noel grabs a snatch strap and a chain out the back of the ute and tries to attach it to the front of our motorhome . It ’ s too big . So he hops in his Nissan and drives up and on through the scrub we couldn ’ t attempt and comes out behind us .
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