Mount Isa to Townsville

  Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia
Monday, November 17, 2008

120km down the road from Camooweal the van died again. This time we were 60km from the nearest town. We were in Queensland at this stage and it is illegal to tow a car here so we flagged down the next car that came along the road and he dropped us into Mount Isa. We had to pay $150 to get a tow truck to bring the car in to a garage. We were told it could be an electrical problem if the alternator and the battery were ok. The van was dropped off at Cava mechanics. They told us they wouldn't be able to look at it until the middle of next week but the boss came out of his office and said they would look at it the next day for us. He then offered to let us sleep in the yard of the garage that night. We decided not to because the gate would be locked and we would be stuck in there for the night. He then told us the name of a hostel and gave us a lift to it. He spent the next few days having a great laugh at us and the state of our van. That night Karl cooked a really nice meal for us because it was our 7 year anniversary. We went looking for a couple of bottles of wine to go with the dinner but we could only find a drive through liquor store that wouldn't serve us because we weren't in a car. Luckily there was a woman in the hostel driving to the liquor store so Karl managed to get us some drink.

Emu's About

Kangaroo's about

We got talking to a Scottish couple called Michelle and Paul who were driving a wicked van. They were also stuck in Isa because there engine was overheating. We ended up going to the Irish club with them. The Irish club there is huge. There are 3 bars and loads of slot machines upstairs (they love their slot machines over here) and there is a karaoke bar and night club downstairs. We rang the club before we went to find out the dress code. A lot of the bigger bars have strict dress codes here. They told us that the only thing you are not allowed to wear is mens singlets. When we got there though we were told that Karl wouldn't be allowed to go downstairs in his three quarter length trousers. He then spent about an hour running around trying to get people to swap trousers with him, looked in the lost and found, had bouncers running around trying to find him something. In the end he had to get a taxi back to the hostel with paul and borrow something off him. All of our clothes were in the van at the mechanics. The bouncers let us in for free then because they knew how much trouble he had gone to to get trousers and I think we were the only Irish people in the place. We ended up having good craic with the Scottish and then went back to the hostel and jumped in the pool for a few hours drinking goon (wine from a box for those of you who don't know).

The 2 Vans

Karl & Lydia in Pool

The next morning we went to the garage to pick up the van. They told us that a fuse had blown and that was the reason the battery wouldn't recharge. So we didn't need the ridiculously expensive alternator after all! We decided to stay in Isa until Monday so that we could drive around and make sure it was fixed before we went hundreds of mile from the nearest town again. It was still over 800km to Townsville at the coast. We were a bit tired so we didn't do much for the rest of the day just slept and got a take away pizza. We went back to the Irish club for a while so Karl could watch football but didn't last long because we were wrecked.
The next day was Sunday. We didn't do much because everything in the town was closed. We wanted to stay until Monday so that we could bring the van back to the mechanic because it was really hard to start the engine. We just had a bit of dinner and a few drinks in the campsite with Michelle and Paul.

Karl in Tree

Windmills

We were up early the next morning to ring Mick to see if he could have another look at the van. He had a quick look and a mess around with a few things, for free, and sent us on our way towards the coast. The van was sounding a lot better but we said that after every other mechanic had taken a look and still broke down everyday. We actually managed to drive over 500km without any problems. We were shocked. That was the first day since we had the van that we didn't have a problem or have to see a mechanic. We stopped in a place called Hughenden which is apparently the centre of Australias dinosaur country. They found fossils from dinosaurs near there and now they have big statues of dinosaurs and museums full of fossils in the town. Unfortunately the museum was closed and we would be gone before it opened the next day or we definitely would have had a look, yeah right. We found a pub showing the rugby league world cup. We caught the second half and saw Ireland getting hammered by Fiji. After that we were ready for bed and hoping to make it to the coast the next day.
We had another problem free day with the van and made it to Townsville on the coast. We couldn't believe we were nearly in Cairns. We just had a quick look around Townsville because it was quite late when we got there. We will stop there again on the way south to see Magnetic Island.
Thinking of getting the van serviced and then maybe sold in Cairns. We'll see how it goes.