Ridiculous rescue no joke for passengers

STRANDED passengers were asked to pour their drinking water into a busted radiator after a Litchfield tour bus broke down.

Tour bus on the road for Coober Pedy feature in Escape 21/3/15

STRANDED passengers were asked to pour their drinking water into a busted radiator after a Litchfield tour bus broke down this week.

The replacement bus got lost – then also broke down.

And on the way home, as tempers frayed, a third bus took a detour to drop the guide back to his car.

Bemused passengers were given a refund but couldn’t ­decide whether the situation was more like the storyline of a horror film or a sitcom.

Rockin Litchfield tour company was supposed to show 12 tourists the beautiful sights of Litchfield on Tuesday, but the passengers got a brief tour of the spectacular Wangi Falls and an extended roadside stay.

There was no mobile phone reception. It was stinking hot and there was little drinking water, after passengers used theirs to help cool the radiator. It didn’t help.

Tourist Nicole Williams, of New York, said they asked a local ranger to call for help.

According to Ms Williams, his response was: “Well, I’m kind of running late and I have got a lot to do today.”

“Twelve people stranded on the side of the road,” Ms Williams said. “I was like, this is your f---ing job.”

Finally a call was made by another ranger, and a replacement bus was sent to find the group. But the tourists waited two hours in 30C heat after the ranger apparently gave the company wrong information.

At last, the rescue bus appeared, but the relief was short-lived when the tyre of the second bus blew out just 500m down the road.

Rockin Litchfield owner Nikki would not reveal her surname to the NT News but said it was the first time anything like this had happened to the company which has been operating for 12 months.

“It went drastically wrong,” Nikki said. “The first bus had only come back from being repaired. We did everything we possibly could to get them picked up and taken back,” she said.

“It wasn’t a deliberate act.”

Nikki said all of the customers were refunded and offered another cruise. But Ms Williams had only scheduled two days in the Territory.

“I moved my flight back just to do this tour,” an upset Ms Williams said. To add fuel to the fire, the third bus did a detour to drop off one of the tour guides at his own car. It was enough to get Ms Williams fuming. “By the end of it everyone was bitching and complaining. We’re dropping off people who work there prior to the people who are customers.”