SOLVED. Based in australia? father/uncle and two kids car crash in the desert. have to walk to nearby mountain to find water. someone is trapped in the crashed car. [s]

[Yasmine]

I think I read this book in the early 2000's or lte 1990's
I'm pretty sure its based in Australia. A dad, an uncle and two kids (sister & brother) are traveling across a desert, and their car crashes. I think the uncle dies? Or is trapped? Then the father and two kids have to walk to a mountain they can see in the distance, because the dad believes there is water there. I think they need to the the water to save the uncles life.
Or maybe it just the kids that have to go get the water because the dad is trapped?

Anyway, they eventually get there and there is a watering hole within a cave.
I believe it is Young Adult Fiction. cannot remember anything about the cover of the book, or names.

[bookel]

Climb a Lonely Hill by Lilith Norman
Jack and Sue have been looking forward to their first real trip away from home, but when disaster strikes it's some holiday! An automobile accident leaves them stranded in the Australian bush. Everything seems to be against them and makes their troubles back home seem slight by comparison as they struggle to survive.

It's been republished/reprinted many times. I think there are more covers than these.

[Yasmine]

That's it! Thank you so much. I remember it was the the third cover I read.

[bookel]

Cool. That's the cover I have too. I seem to recall reading a different edition before that.
The third cover is this edition, in case you wanted to find the same one:
Red Fox, A Mark Macleod Book, Random House Australia (1995), Paperback, 193 pages
ISBN 0091830206

[Yasmine]

Thanks so much.