Round The World

Ok, this had to be the trangest/funniest journey we had on the whole trip. It was also the start of a long run of bad luck for me. I as till kinda sick from the sailing trip, had a temperature and stuff so i was planning a nice earlly night after the drive. A fe hours into the journey. The car bgan overheating, and we had to stop. Then after about another hour, I was too tired so I passed the wheel to Jay again for a bit and I got some sleep.

He woke me up about 120k later as we needed petrol and we pulled into the next station on the route. While we were fillin the car, an aussie man came over and started talking to Jay. He asked him where we heading to Rockhampton or Rocky as he called it. This was where we had plnned to make the stop over on our trip so we told him that we were heading there. He then told us that his car had run out of gas and he needed to get there, and asked us would we towe him. We weren't about to leave him stranded in the garage, so we agreed straight away. We knew Rocky was about 120k away from where we were and it was almost getting dark out so I knew it wouldn't be easy.

When we went to tie the cars together and we realised that he didn't have a proper towe rope. All that he had was just a couple of fairly worn ropes that he had tied together. The distance between the two cars was very little when he had attached the rope. This meant that I would not be able to brake without causing him to come into the back of us. We set off from the garage and within 5 seconds, the rope snapped. He tied the two broken ends together and with that, the rope and the distance between the cars, was now smaller again. I was not totally comfortable then and it had gotten very dark very quickly, and it had even began to rain.

We managed to get going the second time and got up to 100k an hour. It was very dark on the road though and I could no longer see him in my mirror to see if he wa even gesturing at me at all. He was literally right behind us because the rope was so long so we both had to brake very gently and at the same time to try to avoid breaking the rope or colliding. As his car ran on gas,which wasn't available at every petrol station, I didnt try to stop at the next garage we drove by because I could see that they did not sell gas. He did turn however causing the rope to break violently, and scaring the cr*p out of me at the same time.

I pulled into the forecourt to see what he was doing and he went in to see if they had gas. Of course they didn't and he had now completely ruined the rope that we were using. This was when he began to tell us the long story. He had no money to his name but the 80 dollars in his wallet. He had only put 20 dollars of gas in his tank thinking it might be cheaper somewhere else on the route. Little did he know, it was unavailable at most stations along the way. We told him he would need to buy a towe rope in the garage but he didn't even want to spend the money on that which was $8. He began trying to tie up the old rope again and trying to re-use it. It was ridiculously short at this stage so it couldnt be used again and he eventually gave in and bought the rope.

This rope was a lot more stable and longer. As he was tying it up, he told us how he was on his way to Rocky for a blind date. He had posted an add in the paper, saying that he was seeking a woman and that he was 6'3", blonde hair, and blue eyes. He had received lots of responses, not surprisingly with that description, he hadn't mentioned the fact that he was in his late 40's and hadn't aged particularly well.. He was going to see two women in Rocky but had a preferred one because she had lots of money, and the other had a kid. We were getting pretty concerned about the whole thing at this stage.

It was only about another 40k to Rocky though so we told him we would towe him the rest of the way and jumped back in the car. We got there without anymore problems, although there were some scary hills and things that had me worried for little periods. We got to Rocky safe and sound though and sent him on his way. What a relief it was. We then found a motel and booked ourselves in for the night. I was so tired I fell asleep straight away, and was out for the count for the whole night.