As luck would have it, a woman called and canceled her room right as we were about to head out to our tents... The hotel was just about to close, and Helen was quick to offer us the room (free!) - WHAT A SWEETHEART!!! So Andrew and I took the room, and Dave, who'd set his tent up in an as yet unfinished room in the new annex - went out to his tent.
We slept warm and toasty in this ancient outback hotel, and i was up as soon as I heard people stirring because I wanted to reserve the room for another night because it is STILL RAINING hard!! I made coffee and we all sat around the fireplace listening to stories from Lutzi and Vern, the roadtrain trucker. Lutzi and Vern were supposed to have left Barrow Creek at first light, but Vern's little dog had apparently flicked on a light switch during the night and the truck had a flat battery!
Vern asked if any of us knew how to splice a rope so that he could mount his "road train" sign on the last tanker trailer on his rig. I channeled the boyscout in me and set to the task. Later Vern brought out some older trucking magazines that featured articles about him, his Mac truck, and their outback adventures.
There is almost no traffic on the Stuart highway today and the Hotel is quiet. Many sections of the Stuart have overland flooding and have been closed... Vern discovered that in addition to his flat battery, he also has a badly leaking radiator. He showed us an "old bushman's trick" and fixed the leak by pouring a large amount of black pepper into the radiator... amazingly this really worked!! So with the truck now running and the roads open to the north to road trains, Vern and Lutzi said good bye and were off.
After another of Helen's amazing cheeseburgers, we stoked the fire and and struck up a conversation with a bush mechanic. We talked old engines and favorite classic cars until the generator quit about 1.30pm. In a scene right out of my Guatemalan childhood circa 1972 - the bartender, and aboriginal cattle station worker, one of the bar regulars, and a drifter with a wooden leg (wearing shorts) are all clustered around the diesel generator smoking cigarettes and working on the problem.
Apparently a filter housing has cracked and the leaking fuel has stalled the engine. I've working some spare epoxy putty I had in my panniers to seal the crack, while the others are trying to swap out the broken part with another less-than- compatible filter from similar non-functioning generator. Amazingly the lights come back on at 2.45pm.
I've got my tent drying in one of the unfinished rooms. Andrew's tent was full of water, and he has his things drying near the heater in our room. Dave's tent is literally surrounded by water but as it is elevated and under a roof he's dry... as is my bike right next to him. We've just been informed that the Barrow Creek is actually flowing for the first time in quite a while... but its raining and not worth a look as a result.
So we sit biding our time: Andrew is reading, Dave is taking photos, and I'm writing in the back "dining room". The comforting sound of the generator reduces the conversations in the bar area to an unintelligible murmur with outbursts of laughter from time to time... and it is STILL raining.
