on the way to red bluff we passed the quobba blow holes, just an hour north of carnarvon. a place where the force of the sea shows itself when it hits the rocky coastline and sends water fountains up in the air. quite a nice shower if you’re not too close.
we continued on a dirt road that was well maintained but suddenly got worse. after a crest we saw a deep sand patch too late. while sliding into it, the steering rod broke and all i heard was “hold on” before we lost control over the truck and rolled over the roof.
first question: “everything all right?”. not so easy to answer after the head keeps on spinning, even after the truck stopped rolling. ian arrived shortly afterwards and hurried us out of the truck, so far we had just managed to get out of our seatbelts and resume a vertical position. the liquid spreading in a puddle underneath the vehicle turned out to be just water leaking from the tank, but the gasbottle squeezed underneath the weight of the car didn’t look too safe either. we both got away with some strained muscles and bruises. the seatbelts and steel bars around the truck made all the difference.
the bicycle, which was strapped on the roof, wasn’t so lucky.
the wheels are gone as well as the handlebars. the rear rack is bend in all sorts of directions as is the saddle. an eyelid on the frame and a piece of the rear derailleur is bend too. i will see how much i can bend back and what needs to be replaced. apart from the truck and the bike, most of our equipment was still intact. the guitar had just some minor damage. the bottom came lose a little but i managed to fix that with glue. some tomatoes escaped the fridge and got smashed all over the inside of the truck but all eggs on board survived without receiving a crack.
the first crash with the bicycle had a similar lucky outcome with only some material damage. though the bike had no damage at all back then.
we camped just off the road and made a fire in front of the boat and truck to signal the site to other people passing. we we’re cooking dinner and tried to keep our spirits up. i think we did quite well. still, this would need some time to sort things out…