20150507 Qld Brisbane to Mt Isa

20150507 After a busy day cleaning and packing the van ready to hit the road on the Thursday for our big trip to W.A, Des received a call from Eddie with some very unexpected bad news, Noddy passed away last night, well! you can imagine our shock and disbelief, so I am dedicating this verse to our dear friend Noddy and the Cumming family.

First, I would like to take my hat off to an amazing woman, Mrs. C (Cumming), after dealing with the loss of her husband at the young age of 44 and now to be faced with losing her youngest son at 51 and yet Mrs. C strengths just grows.  Feeling bad about leaving for our trip we decided to call in to see Scotty, Des and I were halfhearted about leaving one of his best mates on such a sad time and all Scotty, Mrs. C and Leith could say was, go, he's gone said Mrs. C, there's nothing you can do and Noddy's would understand.  As a mother myself I know you should never have to bury a child but the strengths and agility from this family is nothing short of amazing.  Noddy you were such a character, and you will be sadly missed, especially by your best mate and brother Scotty, I know your family loved you dearly, R.I.P dear friend.

Ye Ha we are finally on the road again for our big trip to WA and were cruising along just past Dalby when we lost power, after a phone call Des managed to get her started but to play it safe, we drove back to Isuzu in Dalby to have it checked out only no problem was found so off we head again. Bugger me dead if the same thing didn't happen again in the same place, something spooky is going on, we think Tony (passed away 3 yrs. ago) is calling us back to Sue's for the night so we turned around and spent the night with old friends.  Richard loves to garden so off we go on a tour exploring his lovely work and I got to tell you he does a great job, Des even said he should be a Horticulturist. Sue cooked dinner as she doe's then we sat back and chatted over a few drinks but not a late night.

20150508 Shit Dolby's a bloody cold place, you can have it Sue but Des did wake thinking he figured out what the problem was so after he played around with the battery terminal, we hit the road with our fingers crossed.  Shit, Bugger, Bum we were about 48ks out of Chinchilla when the same thing happened again, it just loses power.  $300 later for changing an oil filter, shock horror but if it worked, we were happy and we made it to Roma, all smooth from now on.

 

Camped at the Neil Turner Weir at the back of Mitchell.

A lovely quite spot with lots of bird life.

20150509On the road heading to Blackall when shit, shit, shit, it happened again, the van just died this is getting worse what the hell do we do, Blackall is about 300 ks away with only small towns in between.

Broken down on the side of the road with Des trying so hard to keep his cool, so far so good.

We replaced another oil filter reset the computer and hit the road again with our fingers crossed again.

We refueled and showered at Augathella then Des said do you want to drive; sure, I do need to learn so this was my first time behind the wheel in this Van. Here I was happily cruising along with Des freaking out that I was riding the edge of the road, but I got to tell it can be freaky passing road trains and just as I was getting used to it the van died yet again, I can't believe this.  The main problem with breaking down on these roads is finding a flat spot to pull over so we putted along with our warning lights flashing and pulled over on the next flat ground. So, we are about 40ks from Tambo, can we make it, Ya. where here, now to find a mechanic and after being sent on a bum steer we finally find the only mechanic in Tambo who was so busy he can't look at it till Monday.

Camped along the Barcoo River at the back of the town.

One of the campers gave Des some yabbies because his partner wouldn't let him cook so Des was out with his pots to try his luck, we thought it would be too cold but hes caught some.

Here we all are gather around the fire for happy hour and a good old yarn.











11-05-2015  We pack up and head up to the mechanic who told us to give him a couple of hours so off we walk this town with nothing to see or do and we were back with in 40 min.  To cut a long story short John the mechanic had to order a new oil primer pump which should be here Wednesday so he let us hook up to power and we settled in awaiting our part.  Every day we walked the streets trying to break our boredom, I even joined the audio library where you can take audio CD's with you on your trip and drop them off in towns you pass through. By Wednesday we were so ready to leave this town but unfortunately our part didn't arrive, arr well! what's another day.

14-05-2015 Ye Ha our part arrived and John was quick to get it installed, I sure he's keen to be rid of us also.  Des and I started preparing the van for lock up ready to hit the road as soon as we had the all clear.

 She's finally fixed so I made a packed lunch cut up some fruit so we can try to make up some time, no stopping till late.

This piece of shit Suzuki is one of the cars John had to repair and so far it has cost $3500 more than the what is it worth butt the farmer wants it fixed, more money that sense.











We made it through to Longreach and decided to keep on going a bit longer, camping up for the night at a truck stop.