July 2019. Midway through the big road trip across Australia that we had been planning for months, we hit a bit of an obstacle, to say the least. Let this be a lesson to anybody who plans to drive in the outback, not to repeat our mistakes!

We left Lightning Ridge early, en route to Roma, Queensland. We headed into the outback, confident and happy to finally cross the border into Queensland. We were clipping along at a solid 120 km/h through the red, dusty outback, just belting out the lyrics to “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy”. We’re passing a small patch of bushes as the second chorus hits. Suddenly, I see something running out of the bushes a mere 30 metres or so ahead. The next split second, everything plays out in slow motion.

The blurry object becomes horrifyingly clear. A massive emu, as tall as I am! Way too close for us to stop or swerve. He sees our car and screeches to a halt mid run, trying to turn back. I hit the brakes as hard as I can. I see the terror in his eyes. Right as I am about to hit him he turns away, ducking his lanky neck down in a futile attempt to escape the plastic bumper of Titi, our totally unprepared and very un-protected Ford Focus.

SLAM! Jana screams as the car jumps over the bird, and the acrid smell of singed feathers, blood and radiator fluid fills the car. I pull over immediately and try to stop the engine, but the shifter is stuck in place. I cannot turn the key or open the bonnet/hood. Everything is stuck. The car stalls out and dies on the side of the road. Miraculously, we are completely unscathed. If he had jumped through the windshield instead of ducking down, I would not be writing this blog post today.

I get out and assess the carnage. There is plastic and emu strewn everywhere for a few hundred metres, stretching all the way across the state border! Now I understand why everybody drives with bull bars out here.

We had no bull bars to save our car, but by some absolute miracle, I had one bar of 3G on my mobile phone. We managed to call our insurance company to get us on a tow truck back to Lightning Ridge in under two hours. All the while, many helpful passerby were kind enough to keep stopping and checking that we were ok. There is a massive spirit of camaraderie out here. I think the Aussies call it “mateship”. However, we were very lucky to have been on a busier stretch of road, as in this massive country there are places where you won’t see another vehicle for weeks! We were also lucky to have had this happen in the Aussie winter, when dying of heat exhaustion is much less of a hazard. It was a comfortably cool 23 degrees celsius but the flies were still eating us alive, and the emu dead, as we waited.

That afternoon we dropped off our very mangled car at the only mechanic within a 2 hours’ drive, incidentally back in Lightning Ridge where we had come from that morning. This was definitely not a place we had expected to see ever again! We booked a room in the Lightning Ridge Outback Resort & Caravan park, as it was closest to the mechanic.

We dragged our luggage over to the only vacant room they had, which was basically a small shack with no toilet. They did, however, upgrade us for free to a very nice suite on our second day there, and took great care of us, being sympathetic to our situation. I would highly recommend their resort if you ever happen to visit.

The next day we got the call from the mechanic. It became clear that Titi, our beloved Ford Focus, was not going to drive anywhere ever again. The poor bird ripped through our radiator and slammed into the engine block so hard it pushed it off the transmission.

The car was done for, and the reality of being stranded 12+ hours from civilization began to dawn on us.

Lightning Ridge was the smallest, and farthest stop on our trip from Melbourne to Cairns. It was right in the middle of our planned route, and the furthest possible point from any sizeable city or from the coast. The only way to get out of Lightning Ridge was a weekly bus to Sydney or Brisbane, or hoping a local was driving that way and might let us hitch a ride.

We decided on the bus to Brisbane, as it was closer to our final destination of Cairns and we had planned to eventually drive back down there anyway and spend a few months working. In the meantime, we had a full week to enjoy Lightning Ridge!

This is one of my many articles in my Australia Series. Subscribe by clicking “Follow” at the bottom right for more, and check out How We Almost Got Robbed in the Outback for Part II of our adventures in Lightning Ridge.