Great gorge, Great reef, Great break down!

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Childers. What a delightful little place - and how we have grown to
appreciate all its wonders over the past WEEK! Bother and more bother
- Trevor is terribly sick and hence we have been stuck here in
Childers for a whole week. Hats off to Trevor for stranding us in
Childers though - the place is fraught with geriatrics. Its one street
is lined with grannies - yesterday there was a craft bazaar - wow, you
should have seen the bunfight that went down - crazy old ladies all
hustling over hand-knitted tea-cosies and the latest bookmark but the
crusty old men sat sucking back cold ones in the hotel bars from 9am -
good thing they have 3 hotels to choose from - 1 would certainly not
be enough as anyone who's anyone comes to Childers for a holiday! It
really is quite the eye-opener... but back to why we are here in the
first place!

Like i said - Trevor is man-down. He threw in the towel on Saturday
and refused to go any further. Fortunately he collapsed right outside
a Caltex garage - the nice spotty man behind the counter lent us the
yellow pages; we then stared at it blankly for a good 10 minutes
before picking one of the many mechanics at random. We found Chris - a
nice-sounding fella who proceded to tell us that he could only see
Trevor on Monday - so we booked him in for crack of dawn and set up
camp outside the Caltex! As luck would have it, the Caltex was also a
proper 'truck-stop' which means it came pimped with hot showers - it
had been a good 5 days since i'd scrubbed with suds so i was silly
with excitement! After 7000 rounds of cards Monday finally dawned and
Trevor spluttered his way to Chris the mechanic. He was in bad shape -
Chris soon dashed our glimmer of hope that it was merely a broken
water pipe - oh no - Trev needed a new radiator, water pump and and
and - even his head gasket needed a tweaking. To put it simply Trevor
needed monster surgery; the added bonus being that Chris could only
get the parts on Thursday which meant 4 more days of Childers for us!

Trevor at the mechanic put us in a bit of a pickle - being our home
and all - where would we sleep?! Why in the mechanic's workshop of
course! Oh yes - Chris was kind enough to let us set up camp right
there outside his workshop - he even invited us to stay at his house
but we figured that was taking things a little too far! All was going
swimmingly until we met our neighbour for the eve: Bruce-ster the
roo-ster. At first we simply marvelled at his tree-climbing skills but
then came the 3:30am crowing. Wow - Brooster really gave it horns! We
decided that we may in fact turn full-retard sitting in a mechanic's
workshop for 4 days so we decided to check in to the cheap backpacker
motel up the road for 2 nights - and then bunk up again with Brooster
on the final night. The backpacker is nothing special - but at least
it has a pool and we have our own room for the first time in 8 months!

But before this tale whinges on, let me tell you some happier stories
- of events that took place before Trevor capsized! We discovered the
Carnarvon Gorge which was AMAZING - definitely one of the best things
i've seen on this Aussie mission. We walked for 20kms! Slime was
pumped! (we remembered the water this time). It really was incredible
- will have to attach pictures to explain it better. At the start we
climbed upwards to the look-out point to scope out views from above,
while the rest of the day was spent down in the gorge itself, crossing
creeks and discovering 'canyons', 'ampitheatres' and 'moss gardens' ,
all hidden in the spectacular mountain scenerey. Truly special. Ooooh
- i almost forgot our campsite creatures! The night before our giant
walk, we spotted a platypus possie paddling in the creek and the next
morning BOXING ROOS! Yip - just like in Tekken - unbelievable! I woke
up surrounded by roos - i spotted one who i thought was particularly
tall. He wasn't - he was simply perched up high on his hind legs,
kicking the cr*p out of another roo! Boxing roos! i was amazed - there
were several matches that morning but they always involved the same
roo - clearly the bully of the bunch and keen for a box! He even
rolled his front paws - distracting his opponent - and then BANG, in
came the right hook/kick-box combo! Made my day.

From the gorge we trundled further South to Agnes Water and the town
of 1770 (guess when Captain Cook discovered that place!) to snorkel
the monster reef! We'd booked a trip on the speedy catamaran out to
Lady Musgrave Island and the Great Barrier Reef. The weather was quite
grumpy on the day which meant the sea was just as grumpy which
resulted in waves that could kill us all! Thinking we'd scored the
best seat on the boat, we took up position up top, right in the back
corner! The first 10 minutes were excellent fun but soon my excited
screams turned to cries of sheer panic and after 2 hours i was covered
in salt, sea and my hands had become one with the railing - actually
it was just the one hand as the other was clinging on to Gary, who
along with the rest of our snorkel crew was horribly sea sick. Shucks
- the one chap up top with us must have hurled at least 8 times -
nothing compared to the folk down below who were throwing cats left,
right and all around! Good times! One highlight was the whales - we
spotted a pod of humpbacks leaping about in the rough seas - saw them
again on the way back - one chap was even busting some fine backstroke
moves! Once we arrived at the 'lagoon', seas were calmer and it was
snorkel time! Amazing coral, giant turtles, sting-rays, fish big
enough to scare me and even a SHARK (in case folk weren't scared by
the fish!) were just some of the amazing highlights! We also went
across to Lady Musgrave Island in a glass-bottom boat and had a little
tour of the uninhabited mound in the sea - home to pretty sea-birds
like the brown boobies - a real treat for Slime as everyone knows i'm
not exactly packing much boob action! Plus we got free lunch, tea and
cakes - which most people used for filling their sea-sick bags on the
return trip home!

Right i'm out of time and Slime keeps moaning at me to buy him a pie
so i must be off! Missing you all beastly and sending lots of love...
here's hoping we're back on the road soon and that Trevor gets us the
hell out of Childers!

Lots of love eM, Slime, sickly Trevor and all the kids
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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