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Published: March 26th 2012
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The late and great WS Churchill addressed the graduating class at Eton with the famous words I've borrowed for our title, and certainly, life requires us to show tenacity and endurance if we are to succeed at any worthwhile purpose or endeavour. With this in mind, I will now reflect upon the last couple of weeks of our around Australia adventure and describe what we have experienced and why we have needed to draw upon the wisdom of Churchill's words.
At the end of our last blog we had parked ourselves in Bli Bli on the Sunshine (Ha Ha) Coast at the Riverside Caravan Park, fully intent on exploring the Sunshine Coast environs via car and foot and in our intrepid little dinghy 'Origami', via the Maroochy River. On our second day there we did indeed have our first foray onto the water and headed downstream a couple of k's toward Maroochydore, the going was slow but we had fun, even the dog who came with us thoroughly enjoyed herself. Our boating skills were continually improving right up until the point where we ran aground on a shallow bank; whereupon we decided to up the motor and drift for a
while as we ate our packed lunch and worked our way free of the sand bar. The plan worked a treat and we set off once more for home.
The second night in Bli Bli was where things took a turn for the worse, the rain began and didn't really cease, for the next 6 days straight, (in fact on one day we had almost 6 inches of rain) by the end of that time everything was damp to say the least and our spirits were low. Our little tent leaked in every conceivable place, we had a moat around our tent and the continual damp caused mould to grow rapidly all over our tent. By the end of the week it was virtually unliveable. One bright spot in that damp week was the decision to visit, in spite of the rain, Australia Zoo.
The legacy and love of the late Steve Irwin, Australia Zoo is simply brilliant! Wonderfully set out, well organised, clean, fun and informative at so many levels. The level of excellence in the whole zoo was outstanding and we thought it was a world class tourist attraction. The midday show in the 'crocoseum' was
outstanding and the various keeper talks at the enclosures allowed you to get up close and personal with the animals. Zan and Will got to feed 'Bimbo' the Asian elephant and Jen got some wondeful photos of the tigers in action. All in all a terrific day and we would highly recommend a visit to Australia Zoo; the entry price was fairly exe but at the end of the day we felt it was worth every cent!
On the eighth day of our stay the sun poked it's nose through the clouds for a few hours and we took the opportunity to pack up our sodden and muddied kit.(good job we did for we missed the really heavy rain a few days later that would have totally flooded us out) We had contacted the camper manufacturers about our woes and after some lengthy discussions they agreed to have us return the trailer and give us a full refund; it just didn't live up to what they had promised and advertised. So last Tuesday we set off again for Sydney to return the camper trailer, pick up our money, then head back to Brisbane for the Friday where the National
4 x 4 and outdoors show was on at the RNA showgrounds. There we hoped to find a better camper trailer to purchase so we could continue on with our trip.
Alas on the way back to Brisbane on Thursday, some 40k's north of Coffs Harbour the mighty Landcruiser broke down. Of course it was the only part of the Pacific Highway in that area that did not have any mobile coverage and of course it was raining, so we had to walk a km or so to get coverage so we could ring the NRMA and arrange a tow from the breakdown service. Eventually we managed to get it all sorted and our car was soon on a truck heading back to the little town of Woolgoolga; "Woopi" to all the locals.
As it turns out, a repair we had had done on the car 6 weeks ago in Sydney has gone bad. The bolt on the harmonic balancer was not tightened correctly and it came lose, the end result being that it has destroyed the engine requiring a replacement engine or a complete rebuild, somewhere around $7 or 8 thousand. Thankfully it should be covered under
the original mechanics insurance, though that is not set in concrete yet and we are waiting confirmation on what is going to happen and when. In the meantime we are stuck in pretty 'Woopi', we stayed in a hotel the first night then organised a holiday rental apartment for the next week. The car could take as long as three weeks to repair!
So yesterday we hired a car and drove the 4 1/2 hours to Brisbane to go to the 4WD show anyhow, to look for a new camper trailer, we are not going to give up on our dream. So find a new home we have, Australian made this time (not imported) and we will pick it up as soon as our car is ready (which at the moment we have no idea when). Then we will continue on with our plans to see this great country, yes we have lost 3 or 4 weeks but what the heck, we are having a good time regardless. Woolgoolga is beautiful, we have a lovely little apartment right on the main street, metres from the shops and a two minute walk to a glorious swimming beach, we are walking everywhere but that's not so bad and the car will get sorted and we'll pick up our new trailer, head back to Toowoomba and pick up the dog and the rest of our gear and press on around the country! The motto of the story, never, never give up!
Steve, Jen, Zan and Will xx
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