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Down in the Exmouth
Entry 50 of 68 | show all | print this entry |
We reached the Coral coast on around the 6th of september with the intention of staying for 5 to 6 days to enjoy the delights of the Ningaloo reef. Plans, however, change.
In our 7 months in Australia we have broken down 3 times, once in Bundaberg, then Tennant Creek and finally Halls Creek, and each of the repairs have cost us no more than $150 (£60). We new, just as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, that we would have a more significant mechanical failure before long, and lo, we were proved right.
And so it came to pass, on the 7th day of this month in the year 2007 that our gearbox packed up, ground to a halt, ceased to work and in no uncertain terms: this gearbox is dead. Many would have been dispirited at this news of a major automotive breakdown, but having been schooled well in the art of 'positive thinking' (thanks Mum), we absorbed the bad news and turned the other cheek pleased that at least the van could be fixed. Unfortunately, for our 'other cheek' the garage informed us that Priscilla, had originally been Priscilla-san, a Japanese import, and that new bearings would not be found easily or at all. Oh.
We had now swung from 'expensive to fix' to 'unable to fix', an entirely different proposition altogether.
"An entirely different proposition" I hear you say. (sorry, bad Airplane joke)
The garage were kind enough to tow our now gearbox-less van back to our campsite, so at least we still have somewhere to live, but no means of transport other than 'shanks' pony'. The upshot of this is that we are now stuckin a fairly cheap but excellent campsite in a beautiful spot on the west coast. The downside is that all of the beaches are too far away to walk to, the town has about 5 shops, 2 of which are IGA supermarkets (!), locals use the term 'broadband' to refer to their trouser size and I still don't like beer!
The garage were at least kind enough to tow Priscilla back to our campsite so we have somewhere to sleep (that wouldn't happen in England), so all we need to do now is find a replacement gearbox, from somewhere, otherwise we shall have to hop on a bus heading south and leave Priscilla for the scavengers.....
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