6th Off again with Daisy fixed and raring to go. Called into Moreton Telegraph Station and selected breakfast from their vast menu of pies or pies. Despite the culinary paucity it is a lovely green place for travellers to stay under shady trees with friendly staff. The road is still pretty crook and we decided not to sidetrack into Weipa for an extra couple of hundred km of corrugations. Just north of Archer River Daisy died and we discovered a fuel union had worked loose and all our petrol had slowly run out on the road (no fuel gauge in 1928 Austin 7's). A young couple with a couple of kids stopped and I jumped in with a jerry can to go 25km to Archer River for petrol and hitch a ride to return to Lang who was fixing the fuel line. Before I could leave Archer River Lang appeared having been refueled by Shane who was passing on his way to Weipa with a can of chainsaw fuel – Austin 7's will run on anything it seems. Having a petrol engine is becoming a serious remote area planning issue in this day of diesel engines in 90% of 4x4's.
We soon had camp set up and dived into the clear waters of the Archer to get rid of the dust.
7th Leaving the Archer we bounced over a terrible road towards Coen. There was no generator charge and after a bit of investigation it seems the primitive cut-out had failed although the generator was still working. We managed to get a charge by Lang revving the engine with me under the bonnet pushing the contact in but the rough road and gear changes caused the engine revs to drop and the contact to pop out. We figure the car will run for days on a full battery and we have switched off our stereo, Engel fridge, airconditioning and electric seat adjustment to reduce electrical consumption.
Musgrave Telegraph Station is a nice break with good food and a welcome cold beer.
