Broken cars suck

Location: Sunshine Caravan Park, Mt Isa
Kms so far: 28500 ish
When you travel, things often go wrong. I like to think I’m pretty philosophical at these times, and look for the positives when all your plans have gone out of several windows, down about 12 stories and have subsequently been run over by a garbage truck. For example, last year I was in the Gulf of Carpentaria on my motorbike and rocked up at a road house, out of petrol. That is, the roadhouse was out of petrol... for several days! On the up, I met some interesting people and had a great mixed grill from the diner. However, as I write this it would be fair to say our plans have indeed gone under the garbage truck tyres on the street many floors below the window. And I am sincerely struggling to look on the goddam bright side.
We’ve killed another two tyres, both on the Nathan River Road between Roper Bar and Boorollola. The first was around here:

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The second was a little further south on the same road. Each time, the tyre has been irreparably damaged, the second quite spectacularly so:

After some more tyre off the wheel antics by yours truly, we got under way again only to experience a new and exciting hurdle to our progress... enter stage left Engine-cutting-out-at-random!
We were a little concerned about a reluctance to start that the car had developed in Katherine gorge, but once we got it running after a few seconds of cranking, it ran like it usually does. I had made a mental note to change the fuel filter and give the fuel sedimenter a once over when we got to the east coast. Not to be, unfortunately... less than 600 kms later the engine lost power and cut out when Lauren was driving.
Now, the tyre issues weren’t a big deal as although each flat was a hassle, with time and effort we could sort them out. The engine cutty outy thing was a big deal though as I couldn’t work out what was going on. I drained the sedimenter, checked out the fuel filter and ensured it was flowing fuel, bled air out of the fuel system at the back of the injector pump, and checked the fuel lines for holes from stone damage but could not find any fault. The initial bleeding of the fuel system got us up and going, only to have the engine cut out about 50 kms later on. The next day the thing was hard to start and once going it wouldn’t rev and cut out several times before it ran smoothly. Things were seriously tense- we were still a good 60 kms from the next person, let alone any form of civilisation!
We did manage to make it out to the Cape Crawford roadhouse, where I hoped that a fresh tank of fuel may sort out the issue (my thinking was that we may have had a dodgy tank of fuel from the last service station), but no cigar. The car was hard to start about 200 kms further on, and then cut out at the next Roadhouse.
By this stage it had become clear that we were out of danger- we were back on sealed roads with a reasonable amout of traffic on them. So we headed for Camooweal, just across the border in Queensland. This was the biggest town around, so we figured new tyres and diesel mechanics would be in abundance there. Not so, unfortunately... there was two service stations, two pubs and about 600 people in the town! So we stayed the night, had awful food from the pub, lots of beer, spoke to a looser Qantas captain who wouldn’t stop bragging about how much cash he had (he was travelling alone... and looked as though this was something he did a lot...) and set off for Mount Isa the next day.
The car gave up about 100 metres from the Caravan Park that we are camped in here in Isa. This was on Monday morning when we were headed to the mechanics! I tried bleeding the fuel system again without any luck, so we called the RACV and shed the odd tear as Lauper got loaded on to the back of the tow truck.
The mechanic now knows what is wrong with the car (the fuel sedimenter is completely blocked and needs replacing) and its going to be about $700 bucks once the new one comes in and is fitted! ARGH! This sucks, obviously, but the biggest thing that I am struggling to deal with is sitting on my arse in Mt Isa. It took us a couple of hours to see all the attractions that Isa has to offer and I cannot recommend any of them to you. The beer is cheap in the bars, but that is about it. So we’ve now had two days of doing nothing, and are facing another day and a half of the same- we can’t get tyres till Friday morning.
The other thing that sucks heavily is that we missed out on going to Lawn Hill National Park (near Camooweal) and don’t think that we can afford/have time to backtrack and check it out. Lawn Hill is supposed to be one of the most spectacular places in Queensland. Bummer.
So we’re bored, poor, and stuck in a mining town. We can’t even really justify going to the pub and getting drunk due to the expense and total lack of anything vegetarian anywhere near a menu around here. But still, it beats going to work I guess. Sucks to be you guys.

BTW: I've uploaded a whole lot of pics onto flickr.

I've also removed the (broken) Flickr plugin from this page.

Crocs, rocks and culture.

Location: Garnamarr Camp (Near Jim Jim and Twin Falls, Kakadu National Park)

Kms so far: 26793

Post authored on: 22/10/09

So, here I am again, posting precisely one month after my last effort. Not really cricket given how I harped on about being able to blog from anywhere with my fancy wireless internet access, so I hereby vow to blog more.
No doubt that I’ll break it quicker than Cassinova would break a wedding vow...
Anyways, again it seems that a lot has happened since the last update. We’re now in Kakadu, which you’ve probably gathered from the location info above. Here’s a quick summary of what’s occurred in the last month:
Windjana Gorge (Gibb River Road, Kimberley, Western Australia) – Saw my first fresh water Croc!
Bell Gorge (Gibb River Road, Kimberley, Western Australia) – One of the best swims of my life!
Mornington Wilderness Camp (Gibb River Road, Kimberley, Western Australia) – Wow. Private not-for-profit wilderness reserve with some pretty awesome conservation projects going on (if you believe all of the claims of their camp liason officer). Google Australian Wildlife Conservatory for more info.
Galvin’s Gorge (Gibb River Road, Kimberley, Western Australia) – dislocated my thumb bending the numberplate back in to position after a river crossing. Not recommended.
Mitchell Plateau (Kimberley, Western Australia) – hellish drive in over corrugations that you could loose a small pacific island nation in. Lauren commented that even the corrugations had corrugations... and she wasn’t joking! Broke two wheel studs (the bits you screw the wheel nuts onto) off the right rear here. Expensive and sucky. On the up, the Mitchell falls (which were dry) rates as one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life. Topped off the walk with a bit of a chopper flight... saw a pod of dolphins off the Kimberley coast, but no crocs. Wow. Killed a rear shock absorber on the road in tho. Also, I got heat stroke. Also not recommended. Damn it’s hot up here this time of year.
El Questro Wilderness Park (Gibb River Road, Kimberley, Western Australia) – Tourist trap, but well appointed. Lots of people, even more cows, but some awesome scenery and lots to do once you’ve shelled out for 30 bucks for the access pass. Probably one of the best outback tourist experiences on offer. But don’t go getting all warm and fuzzy about how they’re looking after pristine wilderness- they aint. They run cattle, and lots off ‘em. See Mornington Wilderness Camp for warm fuzzyness.
Kununurra (Western Australia) – Beer, Steak the size of your head, A spiked tyre, a delaminating tyre and a large bill for wheel stud replacement. The two tyres needed changing, but we were looking at a minimum of 500 bucks to get them here. Enter stage left Me, and Two Tyre Levers.... after much sweat, grunting, cursing sweat and sweat, I successfully repaired the spiked (and unfixable, according to the tyre joints) tyre with a 5 buck patch kit and a new tube. It held (but leaked) all the way to Darwin...
Douglas Hot Springs (Nothern Territory) – You can burn your feet here if you go too close to the springs. Magnificent place... just had to go looking for cool spots in the river as hot springs aren’t so great when its already 38 degrees and seriously humid... Also, Butterfly Gorge was a cracker... swim over the pool and climb the falls to find several plunge pools... by yourself because you’re off the tourist track now. Choice.
Purnululu (Bungle Bungle) National Park (Western Australia)– Wow. World heritage area, and you can see why. Must visit. Nasty corrugations (hmm, there seems to be a theme developing here...) but spectacular rock formations.
Gregory National Park (Northern Territory) – They were de-stocking the joint (I.e. shooting cattle from choppers). Therefore we were unable to do anything but drive in and camp, then drive out. Bummer.
Litchfield National Park (Northern Territory) – Very cool. Gorges, falls, tropical rainforests and termites that know where north is. Car has developed a bunny hop... hmm.
Darwin! (Northern... oh so you know that already, smart guy?) - Two new tyres for three hundred bucks, sweet. Let’s just hope that the latest in quality Chinese radial is up to the task... New shocks have sorted out the back axel (wow... snap oversteer on corrugations is not fun). Also, Darwin Waterski Club for Parma, beer and waterside beer garden was a serious winner. And it was firetwirling night!
Shady Camp, Mary River National Park (Essex... no wait... Northern Territory) – Crocs a plenty. We saw our first salties here... in fact, this place has the dubious honour of having the highest density of Salties anywhere in Aus. And yet I slept like a baby... Oh, and there was loads of frogs living in the table in our campsite!
Kakudu (blah) - That’s where we are! This place is pretty cool. We headed out of the park and into the edge of Arnhem Land today to visit Injalak, an Aboriginal Art Centre... Very cool. I had a good chat to one of the artists who was whipping up an x-ray painting of a Croc taking a Wallaby. We also picked up a piece or two safe in the knowledge that our money was going to the Artists and their families, rather than to some dodgy gallery owner in Darwin. We’ve also checked out some of the rock galleries at Ubirr – remarkable stuff, remarkable culture.
So, ahead lies a wetlands cruse at Yellow Water (Kakudu), Koolpin Gorge, a limited access camp again in Kakudu, and then on to Katherine Gorge. After that we’ll be making the dash for the Queensland coast, because the temperature and humidity up here are relentless. You seriously cannot do anything that involves movement from about 10 in the morning to about 4 in the arvo... it’s that hot.