RV FEATURE
“ I ’ ll pull you out backwards , you get a good run up and plough through the sand , and keep going to the gate ,” he says .
“ Okay …” is all we can manage , not at all confident .
With sand spurting all over , we ’ re dragged out and on to hard ground . We charge towards the gate . But a disused railway line gets in the way . Bogged again .
This time , Noel has to go back home to grab a D-shackle to pull us out forwards .
But we ’ re not worried anymore . Our knight in thongs and shorts and riding his trusty , dusty steel steed is coming back to save us .
Between us and that gate are four more bog sites . The next tow takes us into his property and through four more gates that have to be open and closed . Each time we have to be dragged along .
Through a haze of dust with the sun setting behind old gums and enormous termite mounds , we finally make it to his house . His head is bleeding where he knocked it under the RV . But he won ’ t let me tend to it .
“ Just out that last gate , take the road to the right and it ’ ll lead to the main road ,” Noel says . “ Larrimah is only about 5km down the road .”
This time it ’ s a good dirt road ; solid and wide .
The ramshackle Larrimah Pub with its weird Pink Panther statue downing a beer has never looked so inviting . News has already reached the caravan park .
As he waved us off down the track , I ’ m sure he was shaking his head , grumbling about silly tourists . But he wouldn ’ t take more than a ‘ thank you ’.
We tried to give him the money the ‘ recovery team ’ wanted but he wouldn ’ t have a bar of it . He wouldn ’ t tell me his ‘ local ’ so I could leave a bar tab , or where he shopped so I could pay it forward .
He was just happy we were safe and driving away … far away .
As for that tourist sign , it was on the left-hand side of the road , making it look like we had to pull in to get to the historic No . 45 Hospital . But we missed the fact that it was cut roughly in the shape of an arrow pointing to a track on the other side of the highway .
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