Hooookay

Did the drive to Katherine on Friday. We've had a lot of "stuff" sent to our mechanic in Katherine that we needed to get back here before we do the drive to Darwin in two weeks to pick up Princess Tilly...

Drive in was fun. The Buchanan's mud has 90% dried up but the washaways remain.

The Victoria Hwy is a mess however. Plenty of flood damage and the road crews are doing their best but there is some section about 15klm east of the Buchanan junction that was *very* bad on the way out. Under water, but I saw someone in the distance drive it at walking pace so I slowed down. Front right dropped into a hole up to the axle. That would be lethal at speed (ominous foreshadowing right there)

Picked up our stuff at Badgers Mechanical Service and then a motel and watched a thrilling game between the Dolphins and the Panthers in Darwin.

Picked up groceries the next morning (including assorted cat supplies and litter as the school principal Zoe seems to have unknowingly adopted another cat)...

Diesel was $2.96L at the local fuel depot near the mechanics so I filled up all 270L.

There was a semi in front of me on the way out but as I was in no hurry I just sat in behind him on 97kph on cruise control.

Grabbed some dietary stuff at Vic River Roadhouse (chips n gravy) and then continued on my way... at around 1.30pm ish...

Remember that massive hole that was under water 15klm from the Buchanan turn off?

Cue ominous music.

I think we arrived about 3 mins after the event.

Bloke and his missus doing the big lap in a nice new Ranger (with a full sized... and I'm guessing full of stuff canopy) and towing an Altitude campers Hybrid...

Hit it at around 80kph. (he says... his wife said more like 100kph, but the simple fact that the entire rig wasn't on it's roof... means that he wasn't doing 130...)

Broke both chassis rails behind the dual cab of the Ranger, tore the LH trailing arm off the hybrid van and the same wheel on the van exploded into at least three pieces.

Honestly... knowing how bad that hole is/was... I'm just impressed that they didn't roll the entire rig...

I stopped to see if they were ok and if they needed anything, food water or communications as I have the Starlink Mini on the roof of the Troopy.

But they had everything including Starlink. Fella was in quite a bit of shock (and anger) at the time. His wife was talking to roadside assistance/insurance at the time... but based on what I saw... both will be written off. The Ranger was in a bad state...

I didn't take pics because that would have been tacky.

Someone from Yarralin drove out to Katherine at 9pm last night and he wasn't there then so they must have gotten a flat bed with a trailer out to him.

I feel for them. Generally people up here are half way through their "lap". Not a great way to end it.


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Quote from: Bird on April 17, 2026, 03:51:24 PMBrisbane

What'd you do to deserve that!

Fixed it for you Brisvegas.

Brisbane

I think they were all destroyed during the big gun removal by John Howard. I do remember a lot of RSL clubs being up in arms over it at the time .

Did you see what I did there ? 

I had forgotten, The Railway Park, in Byron Bay use to have a military gun.
Most towns had a military piece of hardware, in a Memorial Park.

You don't use magic to disappear, ya use a 4x4 & Swag.

They got the wrong shade of green!

But for those on FacePlant: The Gun in the Park

Simple solution, just run runflat tyres 

Simple solution, just run runflat tyres

Not sure if anyone has posted this yet - If you want to hear a different side to the Ben Roberts-Smith saga  - different to the agenda Channel 9 is pushing, this is a good listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZOnwvBei7Q