This last week I had another work engagement, my second trip on the new job.
I ended up flying a bit north to go scope up a site that we are thinking of buying off another developer.
I drove around for a couple of days with the developer, looking at the site and talking to landowners, and of course, taking pictures.
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At the end of the third day, I had to drive down for four hours to the next site. Halfway down, a cyclone was coming south from Queensland, and had slowed to a tropical storm, which resulted in heavy rain and a few close thunders.
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Throughout the four hours drive, the scenery kept on changing from rolling hills,with rain and thunder, to long stretching plains under the sun.
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On the final stretch before reaching my destination, the GPS told me to veer off to a dirt road. Halfway through, I passed a sign saying "Only drive in dry weather". Great, how about the giant storm that I running from?!
The road ended up winding through a National Park, dimly lit with the dusk, and huge stretches with roads 2.5m wide with a speed limit of 100Km/h.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpxPs4RFAql2VNjw4LIzFeK8oOB1859WS7RHWulVRi1E9B0tIJLiu_ecI1AL7oqN8dNdCofBxDKscYqpXEgMdxSE4xWeGtLGhKDhq19177RY_CiFbAZUDo-PXKmqRAb26KG1SLuUAQzAPa/s400/Picture+124.jpg)
(This town's claim to fame is a black tree stump!)
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When it was time to come back to Sydney, I still had a change to do a typical "Vozone" or "oops moment", whichever you prefer. As the GPS once again sent me out to a dirt road, I noticed that my gas level was a bit low, but I was quite confident that it would get me to the next petrol station. At each passing minute, the road just got worst and less drived on. At a certain point, I was opening and closing gates surrounded by cows. By now I was getting a bit worried as the fuel was really running low, and the GPS decided it wanted to play a trick on me. As I drove through another gate, into a field with no track whatsoever, the road on the GOS disappeared completely.
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Perplexed, I turned the car around to try to find where I was, and sure enough, I found it. The catch was that it was sending me back from where I had come. By now my fuel was on the reserve, and I was in a pit of despair. No gas, no cell-phone coverage, and a storm coming up behind me!! As I came back to a house I had passed, I decided to try my luck and knock on the door. No-one there. So I decided to kick up the MacGuyver in me and I found a hose and a jerry-can, and got to sucking some diesel out of a tractor on this person's property. Don't worry, I left a note and $20 that more than paid for the gas.
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As I continued to follow the GPS, I came to a point where I had turned left, and this time it was sending me to the right. Turns out I was less than 5 minutes away from a tarred road! Stressful times! But I made it!