trip I made to Hat Head on the NSW north coast in my late teens.
For those who don't know the place, Hat Head is the original one horse town.

One of the best fishing spots in Australia, it is also very isolated as it is surrounded by National Park and the ocean, there is very little development there. A few shops, a caravan park and a bowling club.

There is only one road into town.

Well this year we had been there for a week and the rains started falling - and falling - and falling.

With Hat Head located right next to a river, the town soon became flooded - and the one road out of town was under metres of water.

The caravan park was also under water, so we made out way to the local "Bowlo" to sit out the weather.

The place was soon full from all people in the caravan park and the locals and it quickly turned into a great drinkathon.

It was a great time until the Club - and then the town - ran out of beer and food.

describes me perfectly when about 15 years ago i took a short cut from Fortnum Gold Mine back to Meekatharra while on a sales trip. A young bloke at the mine was from one of the adjoining stations and gave (i thought) detailed directions how to get back via station tracks. He failed to mention a small matter of crossing a branch of the Gascoyne River - got through that by deflating the tyres and charging through - never knock an XF Falcon sedan! Next problem was a locked gate - lowered the fence and drove over that then took a wrong track that ended at a mill. U turned back to the fork and headed off again as i did not have enough fuel to go back to the mine. Finally got to Mt Seabrook Talc mine - sorry, we only have diesel. Kept going and hit the Meeka - Gascoyne Junction road and ran out of fuel 60k's short of Meeka. Took the jerrycan and started to walk back to the last station turnoff - about 20k's and was 4.5 hours covering the distance. Just as i turned in the gate the owner pulled up in a truck - gave me a cuppa, 20 litres of fuel and a lift back. Finally into Meeka at 10pm.

Never trust "detailed" directions, if 20 litres of spare fuel seems enough - double it+. Never in danger but bloody embarrassed and footsore.

was hitching from Skagway Alaska to Portland Oregon with a mate from Minnisota.

we had picked up a ride from Whitehorse, BC but we had to travel in the bed of a pickup. it was mid September and took 2 days of flat out driving to reach the border in Washington; 2 days wrapped in a sleeping bag seeing it was bloody cold.....

the driver never twigged I was Australian so when we hit the border crossing and the Immigration officer asked if we were all US citizens he answered yes. I then informed the officer i was infact Australian......and well all hell  broke lose......she went off her rocker at the driver for providing false information and ranted about detaining him and his vehicle. I told her he didn't know.....and she started on me.....

next thing we were in the office getting once over. they searched all our bags and strip searched us all.......no rubber gloves.......ha ha. 

anyways they never asked the driver to take his shoes off....... and only him! we pilled into the car and drove off a short distance to stop for fuel. low and behold the driver takes off his shoes and pulls out a couple of bags of mull....... me and  my mate never knew he had them....

needless to say we would have all being serving time if the imigation/customs officers had asked him to take his shoes off...... regardless of our dis-associtations .....  

at the time I had long dreadlocks and never wore shoes.....was driving a mates BMW. US always advise to lock your passport in a hotel safe when you are so close to the border..... was just heading out to a local national park

US border Patrol checkpoint.

is this your car son....no

are you a US Citizen....no

do you have your passport....no

alarm bells......dogs....shotgun and automatic rifles and me spread eagle with 4 officers on top......while the car is searched

some sweet talking skills again....ha ha 

was heading to San Fran for some work related PR. the 101 was pilling up with traffic.......

car behind us was hit and then hit us and we hit the car in front...etc.

so we pull over and the Trans Am that hit the car behind us does the harold holt.....

so cop car pulls up in front of us on the shoulder......

officer comes marching over...

I start to say "officer..."but he yells at me and tells me to shut up ......

so I wait a little more and try to say "officer" again and yeh he gets more agro and tells me to shut up.....

so I wait and try again and again he tells me to shut up and that if i don't he's going to arrest me.......

then after about 5 minutes I finally say "officer your car is on fire....."

he then turns around and see's his patrol car on fire......runs off like a headless chicken to put it out......fu## knows how by this time.

 me and my mate pissing ourselves laughing.....

it went up as soon as he jump out and must have been electrical......still laugh today. 

was walking down Freemont St (LV badlands and I used to live on the corner) to pick my work van up.

once again not wearing shoes and as a I passed a seedy motel a pimp comes walking out.

he never see's me but I see him obviously......

anyways he doesn't hear me so I suddenly appear at his side on the footpath.....

next thing is his 9mm in my face and him going off........... 

apprently I scared the crap out of him....ha ha

anyway some sweet talking again and yeh he lectures me not the go around barefeet for obvious reasons.......ha ha

and head for the States (not).

had an absolute blast. these are just a few on my travel experiences.

was working in Canada with National Parks doing a Black Bear study. amoungst other things we would attach radio collars and track the bear. Obviously you need to tranquilise them first...ha ha

anyway they called me the "Crazy Aussie" not sure why but this story may tell.....

we had tranquilised a bear. now to do this you have to guesitmate it's weight to administer the correct volume of liquid into the dart........ not easy to guestimate but not to worry. so we shot the bear and he goes down.

my job was to be first responder.......that means I'm the first to test the bear is "under". so off I go and jump on the bear to put the hide over its face to calm him down........well this bear was much bigger than our guestimate (he was over 550 pounds) and yeh he wasn't happy with a 6'4" Crazy Aussie on top of him.......ha ha

needless to say my long legs  and some fancy dancing helped in that situation.....ha ha

I would love to work in the wildlife area

Got stuck in Gnaraloo for an extra week when they closed the road because of rain caused by the tail end of a cyclone years back.Was really hard to take[NOT],when we still had plenty of liquid supplies,food and boat fuel and best of all we were not charged for the extra time in the shearing shed.
When I rang home and work to let them know we would be held up you could almost hear the disbelief in their voices"you planned this didn't you"was their reply.

Hey, 2 people stopped to make sure you were ok, I was one of them.

thats my biggest fear when travelling to Leeman (only 300klms north) but its just  the thought of being stranded on the side of the road.  Hubbie always carry the usual things, car jack, oil, grease, spare tyres, plenty of water, etc plus he has made up 4 sets of wheel bearings just in case (new trailer only 2yrs old) but as he says you never know.  We do stop and help people.  Stopped at Regans home last trip for food stop, hubbie say a young girl standing there with wheel off and another bloke helping her.  Found out the wheel bearing had gone, so he gave her one he'd already had made up, we had to go, so we don't know if it fitted or not.  Another time a young couple on the side of the road, (french couple heading to Broome to work) had a flat tyre, no spare, drove them into Greenhead to buy another two tyres, they'd driven from Melbourne all the way to about 6klms from Leeman when they blew a tyre and no spare, god they were lucky.

Sorry to here Russ, Sandy allways happens to the good folk. and as for fellow boater they will have there day.Good things got fixed and you got home safe ,at least you got a few fish in Coral Bay.

i took myself on a holiday in 95
still havent gone home
sid

My doozy trip was a few years back, Left adelaide and went to Dads at Wallaroo and picked up the boat to meet him in Smoky bay 700km away.  Got about 100km when the trans kicked back a gear and revved for a second before I took my foot off. 10km down the road I stopped when I reached the main highway and noted trans oil leaking out from rear of trans, drove slowly to crystal brook and went to a mechanic who told me the only way to fix it was to replace the trans at $2,500.  bought two litre of trans fluid turned around drove (slowly) back to wallaroo and dropped of the boat before returning to adelaide (again slowly but no longer towing).  Went to my mecahnic and $700 bucks and two days later seal/spline had been replaced.  back to wallaroo pick up boat and head off.  10 hours later very tierd, pull into smoky bay caravan park and pull boat in close to dads new 4wd - too close and dented rear bumper (i blame the new trailer which is 1 metre longer).  Two days later after pulling boat out of water arrive at caravan park to note steam coming from grille. open bonnet have pulled off top radiator hose from radiator. refill with water and put on new clamp.  Cabin was crap and when you sat on the side of the bed you sat on the floor (not what you want when your on a boat all day and have a bulged disc in your back). also did a relay on the boat motor tilt trim which lifted the motor in the air, eventually discover problem and manually put motor back in water..

Was one of those trips but glad it happened - every trip since was smooth.  Just got back from this years trip in april - just before I went after servicing and checking car thoroughly I pulled up at a mates to note hissing from rear of motor and coolant leaking out. (VX commodore) plate on back (effectively the welsh plugs on VX) had a hole corroded through it, just glad it gave up the ghost a week before I went and not on the side of the highway.... :-)

Cheers

Paul

good to hear your still moving guys, last year me and the deckie on our trip to exmouth at 3.30 am manged to hit a truck tyre complete with rim which had fallen of the truck in front of us just outside Wanneroo as we couldnt get around it , boat stayed on trailer but we did bend both of the landcuiser diffs , changed the lpg tank to 60 litres from 90lts and bent all of the cross memebers and both axles on the trailer, still breathing we chugged into Dongara as we were still going fishing, a local engineering company helped out alot by offering us the use of the workshop and equipment, we removed the axles and they straightend to near perfect, spare bearings installed and tyres reversed as all wheels bent in like a V dub and all tread gone on outside of tyre . A chain block and porta power used to re align trailer cross memebrs and then all looked good to carry on the trip , we only lost 3 hrs and the company didnt want any payment for their time as they see it all the time,  we still had a great trip and on return to perth C M insurance paid out $ 4k on the car repair and over $ 3 k for replacement parts on trailer.

Big must for long trips tie the rear of your boat down, no insurance coverage from CM if not, also it amazes me how hard it is to get replacement trailer axles even in perth that will match your trailer, how many spare parts should we carry on a long trip?? 

yep fellow boaties need to udnerstand there is an un-written law to stop and lend a hand.

on our way to Mackie Islands last year we stopped for a Air force ambulance who has run out of fuel (Only short maybe 10kms of the billabong.

The cops were there, they went and got soe diesel for their mercedes Ambo Van.

The cops didnt have any tools in their car, the Ambos had no tools, and the coppers had the manual for the van out trying to bleed to fuel lines (Diesels have issues when running out of fuel getting air into the fuel lines)

So they followed the book trying to bleed the fuel lines from i think the fuel pump, with no success (They found a tiny little spanner in the boot of there car).

Grabbed the tool kit, and with a couple of blokes in our car knowing a bit about engines, said that it might be an idea to crack open on of the injectors to bleed the air out as this si how you do it on old diesel tractors.

needless to say within 5 minutes they were on there way.

Good to note, if you need tools to fix your car dont bother waving down a copper or an ambo because they dont carry any :)

On a side note, i always carry 4 x bearings, spare stubs, 2 spare tyres and a spare hub.