Lost week in the desert

In 1999 Chris I and baby Daniel spent a unexpected week stuck in the centre of Australia; Normally no big deal because we were towing a camper trailer and were camping off road all along with everything we needed.   Being stalled is nothing unusual but the 7 days delay and the purchase of parts I never  needed or used later was totally unjustified and not mine or really  in the end,  the cars fault .
The small problem --I took the filters out before I left because i thought they would just get broken- my mistake .
The big problem -I relied on others instead of doing it all myself
Someone who wanted to help,  ( there are hundreds of people ready to stop and help) put the wires to the fuel pump the wrong way around and then  .the  next person to fiddle resisted my insistence that that was the only thing that needed to be done (Remember if you join RAC they may take charge of your vehicle. )

The comedy of errors that cost us dearly started with a problem that was the cars, and mine to anticipate ; an inherent failure in the cars design .The plastic fuel filter is located exposed under the car and directly in front of the back wheel  where a sharp stone on the Oodnadatta was destined to hit it and did . Petrol smell and petrol everywhere . Repaired without a filter,the car didn't make it till next town before pump jammed with all the rubbish from the tank .
The bloke who insisted on providing the filter and repairing the line didn't tag the 2 wires connecting the pump to the car . When it didn' t work i suggested he get under again and swap them around . Before he or I could do that the RACSA truck and trailer had arrived,   The car became the problem of the famous Automobile  assocaition  and I couldn't convince them to do as I asked ( day after day ) They asked me to order parts from France  and  even after I ordered several hundred dollars of parts that the car did not need ( and were never used ). In the end it took the mechanic 4 days and hundreds of dollars in parts and testing before he tried to my suggestion.
I'll  never forget the day the box of parts he wanted me to get arrived from Melbourne .I had packed off Chris and Daniel to see the camel and boat races ln Alice on the bus in the morning . Later that day i dropped in to see what was happening . On the back of the car was a box of parts and the advice that he had finally tried changing the wires over,,,,, and it worked .