A cure for post RAID tristesse.

Sunday morning 1 May, three weeks after Raid Australia, Lesley Cameron, who had an extra two week holiday in New Zealand, phoned me from Balladonia 850km East of Perth. The Acadiane van has broken down, a spark plug is bent and the van is very slow. I phoned Greg Bracegirdle and Chris Stuart to see if they would like to accompany me. Greg had business appointments, but Chris was both available and keen. We met on Tonkin Highway at 1.30 pm. We drive past Brookton and stop on the way for a cup of coffee and the photo shown above. Finally after two more fuel stops we arrive at Balladonia at 2AM. We camp beside the road and wake at 6AM.Lesley is there to meet us.

"We drive past Brookton and stop on the way for a cup of coffee" Here we take the doors and wings off the front of the car and start on the motor to see what went wrong. We remove the air cleaner the spare wheel support, the exhaust and inlet manifold system and the hot air boxes. Finally we remove the left-hand head and cylinder to get to the piston. The photo here shows the piston has been chewed up by a broken piece of piston ring that has worn its way through the top of the piston. I am carrying a spare piston and sleeve, and both right and left hand heads, so we have the needed parts. "the piston has been chewed up by a broken piece of piston ring that has worn its way through the top of the piston." Gotta have a lunch break, chicken on rye bread sandwiches and bananas. Lesley prepared the repast while Chris and I worked on putting the van back together. With the engine put back together with a replaced head, piston and cylinder we test the repair to the engine, by driving back toward Perth. We get to Norseman by sunset, fuel up and have a hamburger for tea and carry on to camp in the bush about 60 kms east of Norseman on the Hyden dirt road.

We camped about 100 metres off the road where a few trees had been bulldozed a few years ago.	Lesley took this photo of me pouring coffee from the pot that had been boiled on the campfire.

The evening was freezing, but there was plenty of firewood, so I quickly lit a campfire and then three more. We sat in the middle of the four fires and had hot soup and coffee.Chris said he was tired and was going to bed, Lesley said it is only 7PM.We stayed up until after 9PM.Chris went to bed with his dog in the tent, Lesley and I each slept in the back of our vans. The above photo was taken next morning before the sun rose.

The drive home along the dirt road to Hyden was most enjoyable with a following wind to help us.We were all back in Perth by the middle of the afternoon.