12/03/2007: Radio Hill

Radio Hill is so called for the fact that the radio tower sits atop it. Some of you may have already heard of my first trip to Radio Hill. For those of you who didn’t, here’s the email which was sent:

It has been well documented that humans, like other social animals, learn from their mistakes. So it is reasonable to assume, that after the Nullabor trip, where this happened:

Me: Uh… Chris, shouldn’t we have a spare tyre on your trailer?
Chris: Why? We’ve just bought it. It’s brand new!
Me: What about my trailer? Shouldn’t we have a spare tyre on mine?
Chris: Nah! This ol’ girl’s been in the family for years! Never let us down before.
Me: Uh… okay.

Two days later…

[Scene: Middle of nowhere. Literally. Me, two dogs, two trailers, one busted up Volvo, and no wheels. Chris driven off to find help. Me not knowing when and how he’ll get back. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting]

… that one would learn a lesson.

Apparently not.

Yesterday…

[Scene: Terrence and Ash’s place. After dinner. Three of us and the dog lounging in the lounge listening to Jose Gonzales crooning out mellow tunes. It’s about 10.30pm at night]

Ash: Hey let’s all go up to Radio Hill. Terrence?
Terrence: [stoned] uuuhhnnnn. Naaaaaah… mgunnabed…
Ash: Tania? Wanna go up to Radio Hill?
Me: It’s late, it’s dark, I haven’t got any proper shoes on and I don’t want to get bitten by mozzies. So… maybe some other time.
Ash: We’re not even going to get out of the car! It’s just up there! We’ll just drive up, check out the view and drive back down. We’ll be in the car the whole time. You don’t need shoes. You won’t get bitten by mozzies.
Me: [sigh] okay.
Ash: [excited] cool!

Maybe 10 minutes later, having driving through a 4WD track in the dark. At the very top of radio hill. Imagine your typical cliff edge with the one pointy bit that sticks out. Ash has pulled the car to a stop at the very, very tip of the edge. It’s pitch black. All you can see are the dots of light from the town below. Clouds from the previous week’s cyclone still covering the sky, blanketing any trace of starlight or moonlight.

Me: Gee, this is nice…
[Ash leans over and rummages through the glove box]
Me: What you looking for?
[Ash pulls out the ammeter or some such device]
Ash: I think the alternators’ dead. You gotta torch?
Me: [Sigh] I got my mobile.
Ash: We’ll use that.

[He pops the hood and we both get out of the car to look under the bonnet. I’ve got these dress thongs on that are, no kidding, two bits of cardboard with strings for the straps. There are rocks and boulders underfoot that can’t be seen, but boy can you feel it when you stub your toes on them. There’s Spinifex everywhere. For those of you who don’t know, Spinifex is painful. Damn bloody painful. Stay clear of the Spinifex! (Well, it’s called Spinifex, but is actually Tussock, but that’s all semantics)]

Me: What’s wrong with it?
Ash: The bumpy track must’ve made one of these cables fallen out.
Me: Uh… can you fix it?
Ash: I think we need to push start the car.
Me: [Sigh] Okay. I’ll push, you steer. I can’t see in the dark.
Ash: Okay.

Keep in mind, the car is facing the cliff at the end of the road. We had to somehow push the car into a 3-point turn so that it faced down the hill we’d just come up from. Me, in these cardboard thongs, stumbling over the rocks, getting pricked by the Spinifex while pushing this Subaru 4WD.

Managed to get the car facing the right way, getting bitten by bugs and ants and stuff. Ash is in the car, we’re rolling down the hill, I’m yelling at the dog to get into the car. Ash is yelling at me to get into the car, the dog jumps in, the car’s going faster down this hill, I quickly jump in through the window with my legs sticking out of the car, I lose a thong and the car grounds to a stop. It is a 4WD track after all. It goes up and down.

Me: [looking for the lost thong] Now what? I’m not pushing you AND the car AND the dog up that hill.
Ash: We’ll walk back. It’s not far.
Me: Not gonna get out of the car huh? Don’t need shoes huh? No mozzies huh? [Grumble grumble grumble…]

We walk back to Ash and Terrence’s house. Terrence is in bed. We get his keys from the key hook by the door and get into his car. Ash tries to start the car. It makes that noise. You know, that nee-nee-nee-nee-nee noise that says ‘I’m not going anywhere’.
Ash: You know that movie ET?
Me: uh… yeah?
Ash: you know how ET and Elliott are connected?
Me: uh…
Ash: So when Elliott gets sick, then ET gets sick?
Me: uh… yeah?
Ash: My car and Terrence’s car are like Elliott and ET.
Me: [trying hard not to bash my head against the dashboard] o-kay…

Finally get the car started, drive back up the hill to find the other car. Jump start the cars, the headlights have caused swarms of flying insects to surround us. I’m talking, swarms. You can’t breath because they’ll fly up your nose. It’s going into my ears, into my mouth etc. Get the cars going, drive back to the boys’ place, get driven home, got to bed. Thank goodness.

Due to the nature of the outing (late at night, unexpected and dark), no photos were taken.