A Heysen Trail story
I woke up from a nice, relaxing sleep, and immediately got to work. On the cards, replacing my sleeping bag and trying to get a fix for my tent. And communicate with the companies involved.
First thing. The sleeping bag. Now, I figured I kind of needed all the goods to be sent from Adelaide to ensure that they would arrive in the rather remote town of Quorn by the time I arrived in 5 days time. Including a weekend. A bit of online research and then I rang Paddy Pallin and struck gold when Luke answered the call.
I told him what I was after and what I needed and he was sensationally helpful in assisting me to pick out a bag and get it sent. For interests sake, I decided on a Mont Helium 450. He didn’t have any sleeping bag liners or tent repair sleaves, so on to the next shop. And the next. And the next. And the next. I’m not sure if it was a Covid related supply problem or these things have been selling like hotcakes, but there was none of either to be found in South Australia. Time to look a little further afield and hope that they arrived in time.
Just as I finished all my purchasing, I got a text from Luke. He’d found a tent repair sleeve in their “odds and ends” pile. He would throw it in free of charge. A back up plan. Awesome!
Next up, tackling the manufacturers regarding warranty claims. I drafted up emotive, but factual emails and sent them off. Before long I got a reply from the MSR representative. Sorry not sorry was the gist. He would replace the piece of the pole that was broken. We argued the semantics of the warranty and what the pole consisted of. His argument. That only part of the pole was broken and so that was the only part that needed replacing. My argument. That the “pole” is still under warranty, and doing a field repair of a small section of the pole is bound to make it less structurally sound than the original. He won. And the piece is being sent on to Melrose, where I will carry out the repairs.
Sea to Summit were a little more abashed in their response. Though they did palm the warranty claim off to my supplier. Email sent and waiting to hear back.
Phew! All of this took forever! Leaving the afternoon to shop for a few supplies and walk the streets of Hawker. A nice, neat little town full of interesting small, stone houses. There is a great heritage walk around the town.
And I couldn’t go past the rissoles for dinner. Again.
