A Series of Unfortunate Events
Trip Start
Jan 23, 2006
1
50
57
Trip End
Ongoing
Gladstone, Australia
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
Not long into the journey Donkey got the hiccups, which grew louder and louder the further we progressed. He was fine when cruising, but had the jutters when travelling through the smaller towns and villages, chugging along like a 40 a day smoker. It was getting dark so we pulled over at Calliope, about 19km from the nearest major town, Gladstone. Luckily there was a large free camp area just off the old Bruce Highway where there was many other campers and caravans resting for the night.
The next morning we chugged into Gladstone having realised the fact that DOnkey needed a visit to the vets. After an hour of multiple staling and backfiring we eventually found a mechanic on the outskirts of town
Calliope Rest Area
. Unfortunately for us it was Friday and he might not be able to look at it until after the weekend, so we checked into the Rusty Anchor Motel waiting anxiously for the fatal news.On the bright side of things, we were staying in a very nice motel rather than the back of the van, and had satellite TV and swimming pool to calm our nerves. We spent a depressing day watching movie after movie whilst eating dirty Kanga Bangers.
On the Saturday morning we awoke with still no news from the garage, the owners of the motel were excellent and helped us to find some budget accommodation in town, although everywhere was fully booked. They also rang the garage to try and speed them up with the repairs. They let us spend the day by the pool whilst we waited for news. Steve was growing impatient and by 3 we walked down to the garage to find out what was happening. As we arrived Donkey was being driven onto the forecourt, and he was no longer backfiring! We were in luck and the repairs came to just over $100, they wouldn't even look at it for that much back home!
We were on the road again! And decided to head back to the old Bruce Highway camp area in Calliope before journeying south the next day. That evening we met Nat and Alan, who were both single travellers around Oz. Both natives of Australia, had travelled a great distance around the country. Nat invited us over for Billy Tea by the campfire and shared many stories about the Outback and Northern Territories. He was in the process of writing a book and had many interesting photos to show us.
The following morning we packed our things together and headed south towards Bundaberg, two days behind schedule and still 200km to our destination.
