Good news, not-so-good news

The good news is that we are still going, albeit a few days later than expected.
When I say 'not-so-good', I mean that its good that the Basil Cell Carcinoma on my nose can be removed quickly and cleanly, it bad that I left it so long to get a proper opinion about it and the consequence is that we have to wait until Friday week to get the Doc's clearance.

On the same good/almost good news front, we finally have our spare wheel carrier completed and installed. On the back of the Nova we have the normal sort of bumper bar, which held the bike rack and the caravan spare wheel. As we are planning to go a bit feral this time, poking right up into the gulf and other places, I thought it might be a good idea to carry a second spare for the car. The plan was to mount it on the caravan bumper alongside the caravan spare. So I took the original spare wheel bracket off, measured it up and went looking for some metal to make another one. The first place I went wasn't the shop it used to be, but had been replaced by a brand new Metal Shop. They took one look and said they could not only supply the metal but weld it al up as well. Too good to be true, so I gave them money and left the parts and instructions. Wow, what a circus. The welder left the next day, they got someone else, they welded it up back-to-front, they remade it, they got another welder in and on and on and on. Finally after about 5 weeks it was actually finished. They had lost the two caravan wheel nuts, but I was able to replace them cheaply from Lloyds Caravans in Kembla Street Fyshwick, so all ended well.

Put the new tyres on the car, had it serviced and now we are ready to roll. Talk about being all dressed up and nowhere to go!

Ah well, wont be long now and we'll be away. We'll have to cut our stops a bit short to make up for the delay and still get to Broome on time. We've booked tours out of Broome and on the way back a tour of the Bungles so there's no turning back this time.

We've also decided that we can get into El Questro. We were put off by the Pentacost River crossing you hear all about, but it turns out that its the main one down the Gibb River road a bit. The actual crossing into El Questro is only ankle deep.

Can't wait.