Fishing tales....the one that got away

  Tarraleah, Tasmania, Australia
Friday, January 9, 2009

Here we are camped at Bronte Lagoon in the central lakes area. While in Hobart buying fishing gear David saw an ad for a one week fly-fishing school run by the Devonport  fishing club. Luckily there had been a cancellation so David was in.

Bronte Lagoon

 On Saturday we set off for the lakes thinking we would have a relaxing drive and set up early ready for the course to start on Sunday. The first part of the day went well and we stopped at a small village called Tarraleah and had lunch in the cafe which had a great view. This town was built in the 1920s in the middle of nowhere (halfway between Hobart and Queenstown) to house the workers building  hydro-electric schemes.

Tarraleah hydro scheme2

It declined when the work finished and some houses were sold off and removed. The remaining village including houses, a church, a school and golf course was sold and the owners have spent millions of dollars to make it into a tourist attraction. It would be a beautiful quiet spot to relax for a few days; very upmarket accommodation; they have converted all the old buildings to give a choice of  accommodation options.

So we continued, well-fed, happy  and relaxed, until a few kms on the car started to give us problems and we broke down on double white lines on a hilly, windy road; oh dear.

What a place to break down

When we stopped we saw a trail of oil behind us; we had lost all the transmission fluid. So we were not going anywhere in a hurry. Being well-prepared we put out our warning triangles and donned bright orange and yellow jackets and took turns directing traffic around us.

David directs traffic

Unfortunately there was no mobile phone signal so I got a lift back to Tarraleah, where there was still no signal but I was able to use a fixed phone in the reception. So the RAC were in control and told us to wait for a tow truck; apparently one was in the area on another callout but could not be contacted because of the phone situation.

Liz directs traffic

If we saw a tow truck we were to wave it down. About an hour after arriving back at the breakdown scene a tow truck came into view so I jumped and waved madly and it screeched to a halt. It was the correct truck but had another vehicle on the back. He had to get that back to Hobart before he could return to tow us. That is a round trip of about 350kms. So we settled in to direct traffic and wait.

Organised w ith our warning triangles

David dancing?

At 9:30 pm, seven hours after the breakdown, 2 tow trucks arrived. One loaded the F250 on the back to transport it to the nearest Ford dealer in Hobart. The other hitched the caravan up to tow it to our camp site for the fishing school; we had been only a few kms away. Unfortunately the truck for the caravan had a problem with its lights so the other truck with the F250 on the back had to drive behind the caravan so nobody drove into the back of us. What a strange convoy we must have looked as we drove slowly in the dark along the windy roads and  then on the dirt tracks to the Bronte Lagoon for the fishing camp. Luckily the tow truck drivers were also fishermen so understood the need to deliver us there safely.

We arrived around 11pm in complete darkness; nearly all the campers were asleep until we arrived with truck engines revving and headlights blaring. The caravan was eventually sited and unhitched after some problems with reversing into deep holes which we could not see and we were finally left alone about midnight with no vehicle. What a way to make an entrance.

Track to fishing camp

So the one that got away was not a fish but our F250. What a strange feeling to be here so far in  the bush at the side of a lake with no tow vehicle. Still we were prepared for bush camping and were well stocked up with food, water, gas for cooking and diesel fuel for the heater. We certainly needed the heater that first night as it was cold with a clear sky; we haven't seen such a starry night for a long time; the Milky Way was brilliant and the sky completely full of stars. Some well-appreciated compensation after our exhausting day.

As it was a Saturday night the car could not be delivered to Ford till Monday morning. After an anxious wait we  heard that a diagnosis had been made and it is a broken seal. Sounds simple enough but the bad news is that it would involve removing the whole transmission system to fix it; at least 2 days work. The good news was that it should be covered under our warranty so we may be lucky and come out of it OK.
Phoned Ford on Wednesday to enquire if it was ready only be told that our car was not in their computer system and nothing was known about it. To cut a long story short they had been giving us the progress reports on another F250 which had come in the same day with a similar problem despite the fact that we had emailed them with all our details and followed up with phone calls. Our vehicle had been left outside in the used car lot for 3 days with the keys in. We hope that nothing is missing. Needless to say we contacted Ford Australia customer service and the Hobart agency are now treating our repair as urgent.

The fishing school finishes today and David has just got a lift  to Hobart as they hope the F250 will be ready this afternoon. We will then be able to resume our travels as planned.

David in his new fishing vest

A report on the fishing school will follow. Maybe I will get David to write it? He has not had any spare time as it is an intensive course and any spare moments from class are spent fishing. As you may imagine we have also spent many hours on the telephone and writing emails trying to sort out the mess that Ford got us into.
We did get our first rainbow trout on Tuesday; about 1 kilo; sounds pretty good for a beginner but it was actually given to us. Still tasted good on the 'barbie'.