We've given up our jobs, we've sold our unit ...
Now we're ready to live life - a caravan, a car, just the two of us . . . the possibilities are endless.

Come join us on our adventures ...

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Made it to Cairns

Well we've made it to Cairns.. only to find ourselves in the mechanic..  having to get bits and pieces done that we'd thought had been done in the mechanics back home, but obviously not.  As you can imagine Az is pacing and feeling quite useless.

Yesterday we had a HUGE day!  We drove from Rockhampton to Townsville .. we saw trees, trees and more trees..nothing very exciting to report at all.  There were some road signs that really mirrored our thoughts...












I had an audiobook that I had downloaded months ago, so we decided to put it on to distract us from the boring drive.  We listened to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - while it was hard to follow, we really got into it and as soon as we got back into the car, we were both saying to each other, "book?"... "yep".  So the book actually took us the whole way to Townsville...  and we both agreed we'll have to get another book.. which we did last night - we are now listening to 'Beastly'... which is quite different to what I was anticipating.. good though.

Last night we stayed in a carpark in Townsville.. I didn't get too much sleep - I'm such a goody-two shoes! I was worried we were going to get in trouble with the Police or someone was going to come and rock our car or harm us in some way (I know I know!!  I'm a scardy cat girlie girl!).  We paid to have a shower at a caravan park over the road.. boy did that feel good!  Although, if I were to criticise I would say they were a little cheap on the hot water..  After Az's big drive, he was starting to fade big time, so we went out for dinner - $10 rump steak.. yeah baby.  After my discovery of the midnight pee problem, I then started thinking about the 'after steak' consequences.. so we stayed around 'town' for a while.. hehe.  Problem sorted.

We're starting to get the 'packing for sleep' routine down pat and were in bed within 10 minutes.  When we both woke up with sore backs, we realised we had forgotten to put the plugs back in the bed to keep the air in.. a minor hiccup in our set up the night before.  We were wide awake at 4.30am so decided to get up and get going - and we'd have brekkie in the next town.  We went past Ingham (didn't look too exciting and we were both still feeling ok) and ended up in Cardwell, where the diesel was cheap and the town looked quite nice.

We pulled up on the beachfront and were amazed at the damage that was still around from the cyclones. I guess once it's out of the news, it's not something you regularly think about and push to the back of your mind.  While a lot of the buildings were still missing roofs and walls, you can see the shear amount of work that has gone into getting the town back up and running again.  Looking out over the water, we could see Hinchinbrook Island - such a nice way to spend breakfast time.  The water did look inviting and it was probably the first time we've both seen water in a few weeks (we've both been so busy getting everything ready for this trip, it wasn't even on our minds) - but knowing that there could be mean things in the water, we kept our distance.





Back in the car, the audiobook went straight back on, and we chugged our way to Cairns... only to wind up at the mechanic.

A side thought...  over the last few days traveling on the roads, I've come to the realisation that our Truckies can be really quite polite - and it makes me giggle everytime.  We're cruising at about 90km/hr, so Aaron's letting the trucks pass him - using his right indicator to signal no traffic coming..  once the trucks pass, they indicate right, then left and then right again - apparently the universal truckie 'thank you'..  I have resisted the urge to jump on the 2way and abuse those who aren't kind enough to give us the indicator thank you.

So back at the mechanic.. turns out that the GC mechanic may have given us a bum steer.  Some of the things that we thought had been done (and paid for) hasn't actually been done.. which is very lucky we've found that now.. cause it would have caused some major headaches if we'd found out in another day or so.  We're staying at my old friend's place tonight, so looking forward to catching up.. when we get out of the Industrial area that is.

After $500 we left the mechanic - transfer case rear seal, axle seals, spring bushes... found an amazing mechanic - Ben Kragt Automotive 4WD Specialists (07-4035-4464) - Craig looked after us and had it back to us in a few hours!!  Not bad for a random mechanic that we found ... guess these things happen for a reason.   As we were paying, we caught up with Skye & Swifty - perfect timing :)  Then headed to Jes' place and started dinner.. yummo!  We were going to do a bit of grocery shopping, but decided we'd rather stay in and catch up and then grocery shop later...  much better idea!!

Looking forward to starting the big adventure tomorrow - the maps are out and the planning has started!

1 comment:

  1. Loving hearing about the adventure so far! I think you'll have to make it in to a book!! Love the "grass" pic!! Xox

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