We have arrived at the Lodge at Ancient City. Wow, this place is gorgeous!!

Our trusty Land Cruiser has added another chapter to our story. When we left Big Cave Camp to come here we hit the first gas station to fill up with diesel. As the attendant was filling up the truck I noticed the pump said ‘blend’ on it. I thought “not a big deal” as most of the diesel pumps here had a ‘blend’ option. When I commented to the attendant, “That is diesel, right?” He sort of panicked and said “No, it’s petro.

WELL, holy smokes!! I said, “STOP!!!!!” 14 litres of gas had been put into the truck. We then topped it off with 43 litres of diesel. We figured with the half tank of diesel it already had plus what we topped it off with it should be diluted enough and the truck would be fine.

We drove off and the truck was running a little rough. We kinda expected that so we carried on. Well, the rough running became more and more, like not wanting to run at all until the beast just quit running. We were well out of any town and happened to break down in front of a church. The gods must have been with us because they sent a message to Bill….”Use the auxiliary gas tank” (it was full of just diesel). Bill said, “Hey let’s switch the tanks to the auxiliary”. We flipped the switch and after the truck sputtered and coughed until it got all the gas out of its injection pump it began to run perfectly with the diesel now been fed to it from the auxiliary tank. So, for the rest of our journey we will continue on using just the auxiliary tank. It’s a smaller tank which means we will need to fill up more often, but as long as we make sure only diesel goes into that tank we should be able to finish the journey unscathed.

Ron

Good old “trusty Land Cruiser”. However, diesel/smeesel! Picky thing! As I was reading your email I was expecting to read:”Hey, Bill, why don’t you siphon the fuel” with Bill responding, “I think it’ll work better if you do it”.

Sunday and Monday here the weather is forecasted to be sunny and over 20 degrees. Yippee. When you two return on Tuesday (October 13) the weather is supposed to be partly sunny and 14. The forecast for the 25th (our show) is 13ish and sunny/cloudy.

The autumn colours here are magnificent! Putting on a great show to welcome you two home.

Winnie