We shaked and bumped our way along endless corrigations towards Palm Valley on the Mereenie Loop. That was until Myrtle the Turtle decided enough was enough.
I honest-to-God said to Kaz 500m up the road “I need to get under the the car and check all the bolts tonight”… and bang! Out went the whole left wheel and hub assembly. Murphy struck Myrtle!
We were a long way from anywhere. We quickly decided to get the shade out, set up and consider our options. The red mark shows where we were, unsealed road until Hermansburg then another 140km until Alice Springs.
After retrieving our bits strewn up the road and actively working on combating our sympathetic nervous response. We set to work with a plan.
We managed to get the hub back onto the axle with some donor bolts replacing the sheered ones. We were hoping to at least limp it into the next town. Our problem was we just needed a high lift jack…
Thanks to Chris and Russ from “Wanna Lift? Crane Hire” Alice Springs, Myrtle was lifted high enough to get the wheel and tyre on. We of course could not thank them enough and stuggled to find a suitable way to reimburse them… it was all sorted in the end.
We have limped our way into Alice and have spent the day assessing damage. We are now able to have a bit of a laugh and not feel too deflated about the ordeal.
The Smiths Go West 
Wow, lucky a crane happened to be driving past or is that not how that happened?
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It just happened to be passing!
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Good to see everyone is ok, the roads can be rough. Love how a crane truck of that size was just driving past, what a story!
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Yeah it literally did. We had about 5 cars go past, no one had a high lift jack. Then we could see the crane coming from a distance. Russell laughed when I asked him if he had a high lift jack. He said he did, but “we can do better than that” and proceeded to start up the crane. They wouldn’t take any money but accepted our offerings of Heifer Station goodness.
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Sorry to hear of your misadventure, glad the crane guys came by to help you. I can relate to the feeling as I had help when stranded in the outback a couple of times.
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Shit lucky you are all ok. No doubt you’ll get to know Alice Springs well in the next couple days. Are you staying in a motel ? Kaz would love a real shower and loo I’m sure !!
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We got to the Big4 at Alice (which is awesome). Most of it I can repair here on site. The showers ant toilets are really good here too so it feels like luxury!
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Nah, we have a all the comforts we need on board. I just loved we didn’t have to leave the trailer behind!
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John wants to know if you’re shopping for a high lift jack today ?!
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It was on the “maybe I should get one list before we left” list. I have been thinking about grabbing one here in Alice.
My main reason for not getting one was the weight to carry around. We would have got going without the crane to be honest but it was sooooo cool to see it! 😎
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Im interested in how you reimbursed them darren 👀
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I would have done “anything”… but they were happy with some Heifer Stn wine 😂
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Never did “anything for me” haha
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What a great adventure. Best of luck for the onward trip.
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Thanks Helen…. hopefully we have done the bad luck by now 🤣
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