In 2003 I scored a job as an audio visual technician for a comedy film festival and went on a 5 day tour of the Pilbara. It was my first time traveling to that part of the country.
My colleague the MC and I flew to Paraburdoo (I think) and picked up a big personnel carrier (army jeep) with all our gear, and began our long journey to our outback destinations. After entertaining the people of Paraburdoo and Newman we took advantage of a free day due to Tom Price's cancellation and decided to visit Karijini National Park.
On the way my travelling partner made a phone call to friends in Port Hedland which was our next destination. She was arranging our accomodation with these people and mentioned going to the pub with them when we got there but my spidey senses were tingling. I had a bad feeling about these people.
We finally arrived around lunch time, parked the tank, took in the breathtaking view and made our way down the track to the bottom of the gorges. We swam in the calm still stream and I remember my mind being completely blanc and in awe of such a wonderful paradise.
After a while we made our way back up the track to the Jeep. As I drove out on to the main road the Jeep conked out. I lifted the hood and discovered the fan belt had snapped. Then I noticed the air con belt had snapped too. But the strange thing is both fan belts were new and extremely thick and looked like they just exploded. It would take an immense force and power to snap either of these belts let alone both at the same time.
So we waited and waved down a car who drove us to the Ranger's Station. We got there only to discover no one was home. Just as we were leaving a car full of Rangers comes along. They were aboriginal men with very thick accents. It took me a while to figure out this one "fulla" was saying motor car to me. They called the RAC in Tom Price who would take 3-4 hours to arrive and we were driven back out to our stranded truck. We had a tin can dinner and watched an amazing red, orange and yellow sunset go down over the desert.
Finally the RAC man and his wife arrive. It's dark now so he hangs a lantern over the engine and he's astonished as to how these fan belts have snapped. He'd never seen anything like it and couldn't imagine how it could have occurred. He replaces the belts and we were on our way to Port Hedland.
We reach my colleague's friend's house around midnight. They're drunk, behaving inappropriately and spouting racial comments about the rangers who helped us out. I went directly to bed. My Spidey Senses were right.
I can only imagine what kind of trouble I may have found myself in with those rednecks. Something was looking out for us.
Our trip was delayed intentionally.
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