FINALLY. We are almost in Cairns. Hahaha, haven't made it QUITE yet... still another 150km to go... but currently we are camping in a woman's yard (whom we met in a pub). She lives in the most beautiful part of Australia that we have seen so far... its got lush green hills, cows grazing in the distance... and the best part is it's FREE. Perhaps we will stretch this out as long as possible.. as we all know as soon as I make it to the next stop I have to work my butt off for a few months.
The last week or so has been interesting.... in a way that makes a good story for others, but really sucks for me. Remember that boiling sound we heard coming from the van?? Well... it got worse. It started as us just having to fill the coolant every day, and never go over 90km so the sound didn't get too bad. After a couple of weeks of that, we noticed that the coolant was POURING straight out of the van when we stopped.... So we took it to a mechanic (don don don) and found out that (hold your breath) we are FUCKED. Basically. Totally Fucked. He informed us that we either have a cracked head or a blown head gasket, which he estimated would cost around $2000 to fix (remember we only paid $2800 for the van in the first place, and the people we bought it from only actually got $1800 for it after fixing the oil leaks and replacing the tires). CLEARLY we don't have $2000 right now (frankly I don't even have $500 right now) and we were still about 700km from Cairns (awesome). The (very nice) mechanic said that we could make it to Cairns, as long as we pulled over when it gets hot and wait for it to cool down so we can refill the rad. And, since he was such a nice guy, he didn't charge us for the bad news.
 |
| puddle of coolant under the van |
Sooooo... it's been really awesome for the last week. We get to drive for about 50km (sometimes 70 if we are lucky) then we have to find a place to pull over (which is REALLY easy when you are driving on roads that only have one lane paved with gravel on the sides) sit for half and hour or so (in the excruciating Australian heat) fill the rad back up, then drive for another 50km (did I mention we are driving with the heat on full blast as well to try and help the engine stay cool?). Needless to say, it takes us all day to get 200km. So if you think we were going slow before, this is a snails pace. The first day we were really sulky about it (grumbling and swearing each time we pulled over) but we have since accepted our fate, and are using the time to relax and learn new skills. We even finally named the van (Beppe... and Italian nickname (since we bought him from Italians) which I can't pronounce properly) and then he drove for 100km without getting too hot!!! (or maybe that had something to do with the fact that it was shady and later in the day... but lets go with the theory that we loved him so he loved us back)
 |
| patiently waiting for the van to cool off... luckily in the shade this time |
 |
| Tina balancing a stick on her finger |
Soon (very soon) we shall be in Cairns, and that means we will be getting a reality check (as my father put it) and finding a place to live (so we can park the van) and jobs (so we can fix the van... or sell it and buy a new (to us) one). Hopefully we can make enough money to deal with our van issues and have enough to resume our travels on time (we want to travel (and enjoy) the east coast and end up in Sydney by Christmas) and then probably work again in the new year.
Oh, and I finished my hair. Two weeks, blistered hands, sore fingers, and 66 dreads later... I am finally done. I think they turned out ok... time will tell I guess. Now I just have to maintain them, and ensure that I do that properly so I don't end up will smelly hair and a bad scalp!
Look at that... a short one.
No comments:
Post a Comment