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Published: April 23rd 2008
Since our last blog a lot has happened in such a short time. We shall endevour to address all without boring you with the small details.
We shall start with our exit from Alice Springs.......We headed out of Alice and headed North staying on the Stuart Highway. This was pretty much straight road all the way with very similar scenery untill we reached the Devils Marbles ( near Tennant Creek). These were giant Boulders stacked on top of eachother or cracking open. They were literally in the middle of nowhere. From here we went to Tennant Creek for a brief overnight stop before our Journey to Mt Isa the next day........ or so we thought!
After getting up around 06:00 to cover the 680km in a good time we were on our way and saying our goodbyes to the friendly townfolk! With 90 km under our belt (no pun intended) and with no warning Doris fell silent and lost all power! We were now in the middle of nowhere without a clue what was wrong. After about 1 minute Kayley flagged down a car and we asked for help. The news was both good and bad. The good news
was that the driver was a mechanic, the bad news was that it was a big job and not fixable at the side of the road! He took kayley back to Tennant Creek to be able to get signal to ring our rental company, while James stayed with Doris to stop her being robbed and burnt! After about three hours of ringing and sorting out a tow truck, Kayley drove back with the driver to the site where Doris had fallen ill, and she was loaded onto it and taken back to Tennant Creek. After being looked at by a mechanic, we found out the Timing Belt had worn down - quite a major job!
The Mecahnic advised us he would have to order a new part so we were held up in a motel for two nights while it was fixed. We picked the Van up at lunchtime on Saturday where we also picked up something else! Inside a tiny bird cage was a dog smaller than a cat. The mechanic had told us it was someones pet that had escaped and was taking his dogs up and down the street. He asked us if we would like
him, the other option was that he would kill him that evening. Without any hesitation we took on the responsibilty and named him Dingo!
Dingo was a great little dog and travelled nearly 2000km with us up untill Townsville. He slept with us in the back and rarely woke us up. We have decided to give him to an RSPCA centre in Townsville as we cannot bring him home with us (although a fighting fund is an option if anyone would like to donate for his quarentine costs). The centre has advised us that if he does not pass certain tests he will be put down. We have been told to ring on friday morning to find out. If we are given bad news we will try our best to get him back and reassess our options!
The changing scenary along the Barcly Highway was really amazing. We started with the same red desert conditions we had been used to while travelling through the centre, but as we progressed towards Townsville, the scenary went to yellow farmlands to rocks and hills and finally the tropics with green everywhere! After a brief stop in Townville ( to take our
cute little dog to the shelter) we drove north to Cairns, which is where we write this from today. We have already booked a Reef trip for tomorrow, which we really can't wait for, and we plan to stay round here for a few days. Weather is lovely and Cairns is really beautiful.
Well thats all from us for now. Hope you are all well.
Take care,
James and Kayley (and Dingo)
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matt
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I WILL PAY!!!
Not all of it....I don't know how much it is.......I will pay something! . .