FINDING A WRECK AND A GRAVE
After a few minutes more waiting for the blue Rangie we resumed the R & R and headed south along the middle dunes. After our reconn notes had been discussed with REMLR friends, I had been told "to start looking for the Sabre Jet wreckage south of the stick with a rag" which turned to be the toTTT indicator for the 6x6 Tour bus. We had not known about the Sabre wreckage when we were doing the R & R reconn. Our friend at Horizon Tours, Graham Samsom, had passed on the info. This time we put Mr Flat's GPS to good use and saved some time. Thank you Mr GPS (No.2). Sure enough, there was some of the wreckage sticking above the sand. "THIS WRECKAGE KNOWN TO AIR FORCE" read the stencilled message on the aluminium. We dug around it a bit and took more photos. Why did the Air Force leave it there I wonder? Graham from Horizon says there's a lot of the wreck and sometimes most of it appears above the sand. But not this time.
Next we drove further south to the crucifix seen the day before when looking for the access to the toTTT. The crucifix stands as tall as a street sign and is made of steel. It marks the burial place of two drug peddlars who were killed by their associate and hidden in the dunes. In the rising stretch of sand approaching the crucifix, some Land-Rovers came to grief. Travelling up the face of a small dune Chloe stalled and stopped. Following too close behind, Castrol had to make a choice fast and chose wrong. I went to the left side to "go around". Uh-oh. I finished up bogged sideways on the dune at an ugly angle and Kay got herself and the boys out pronto. Ana's drab Lightweight driven by Darrin also tried the left side option and also got stuck -but at least he stayed heading in the same direction as Chloe. Graeme Dunlop had also managed to keep going around on the right side of Chloe and then he pulled up Sawmill to offer help to Dennis and also to me. "Careful about the angle of Castrol", he said. He advised that without due care, Castrol could go 'greasy side up'.
Dennis got under Chloe's bonnet up and started fixing an ignition problem caused by the coil rotating in it's bracket and stuffing the loom to the dizzy. Darrin was able to reverse straight out of his position and go around to the right of the road block. Graeme and I dug around Castrol's high side tyres. Then I got inside and summoned up The Beast That Lurks Beneath The Red Knob. After slithering sideways and down the slope under power, coating the chassis with sand, Castrol was ready to go again. Dennis also got Chloe going and we all proceeded another 2km before yet another snafu. Dennis had moved onto the hill near the crucifix and stopped, not wanting to continue the 6 or 7km south to the Sygna wreck. Chloe had been nursing a slipping clutch for the whole R & R so far and Dennis had seen the wrecked 50,000 ton bulk carrier many times before. Graeme turned back with Sawmill and stayed back with Dennis, more because of a mix-up on my part than anything else.
