Possibly the most boring post ever

I'm serious, this post is boring - not much has happened this week.

I replaced the hose connector with a different type. The existing manual tap was just too long and because of which, when pushed up against a wall it could potentially damage the fitting and lid.
The one it’s replaced with is an ‘auto stop’ type, which means provided there is some water pressure, it doesn’t dribble when disconnected. In testing, it does a little, but in practice the water drains out of the hose when the tank runs dry anyway.

On Tuesday evening, the night before our first of a series of Russian lessons, we found out it was cancelled. Pretty disappointing.

 

In an awesome mark of irony, here is my ‘question mark’ tracking pattern from the weekend. I felt continually confused, no matter how far I drove, the road didn’t match my memory. I don’t remember this much tar, I don’t remember that phone box… etc. I found myself continually trying to make the image fit “oh, maybe that phone box is new”, “maybe this town has just been built” – both of which were certainly not true, but your mind fights you on it. Not at any stage did I feel lost, as we could always back track. After nearly 4 hours driving, it finally dawned on me that we were on the wrong road all together. The two roads were parallel, maybe 10KM-20KM apart. The thing that threw me, is we changed destination half way – to which I said, that’s fine, we just go right from here…. but on the wrong road! I now finally understand that lack of confidence people feel about going some places. When you go bush with some people, they struggle to find their way to the same place they’ve been 10 times before. Something I never understood until Sunday.

I’m fortunate enough to usually remember pretty accurately how to get places, where we are and which way we are facing etc. I usually have to only go to a place once and I seem to remember. I did joke with Cassie that once we had done our Magadan>London trip, I could do the same trip again without a map. I'm willing to give it a try if someone wants to bankroll it?!

I was able to get directions from Cassie via the telephone, but without maps, we were stuffed. It did make me think how useful it would be to have the navigation system back again as this wouldn’t have happened if I still had one.

Even once we found the turn off, half an hour down the track, we had to turn back as there was the biggest tree ever over the road. It was about as wide as the car bonnet is long!

I started the day with both tanks 3/4 full, and finished the day with both tanks half full. It’s the best feeling to know that you’re not limited by range! I know I keep harping on about it, but I think if I’d have left home in my old car with 3/4, I’d most certainly had to have got fuel on the way back. Oh, but if that servo was shut, or was out of fuel… I would be stuffed!

Nick, who I was ‘showing the way’ did highlight that this hasn’t happened before, and wouldn’t have happened if I’d have had my off road navigation majig. Something I will certainly look into in a few months.