Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

 Jun’s Car Garage Car Park, Katherine 

The title of this post was going to be ‘going downhill - for real’ as the day did not unfold well.

We left Darwin early, ran around a bit going to Bunnings / camping shop etc and then got properly going around 10am. 

By 1130am, we were broken down in Adelaide River - about 100ks from Darwin and 200k from Katherine. The coolant was pouring straight out the engine onto the ground, suggesting a broken hose. With Warren’s guidance, Mark valliantly tried to find the problem… 

Plan A

Alas it wasn’t to be. 

To cut a long story short, we had to get the van towed to Katherine. I called numerous repairers/mechanics in Darwin who all said ‘can’t fix till end sept’ or similar. Same story in Katherine. And then, by this point getting more desparate, I called Jun’s Garage in Katherine and the owner, Jun, said he’d have a look when we got it there. This was the only person out of at least ten I called who suggested that they’d look at it asap.

 So we bit the bullet on the excess (some of the towing covered through insurance, thanks Mum and Dad, but not all) and went for it. Luckily there was a towing guy in Katherine so we didn’t have to wait too long for the truck to get there.

Plan B

Honestly I thought the van was very precariously on the truck but the driver assured me it was not going to fall off

We got to Katherine about 6pm after a very long and exceptionally bumpy ride in the tow truck; the driver telling me stories about the worst traffic accidents he’d seen. Not especially what I wanted to hear at this point in our journey, but one good thing, he did say he would "always travel in a motorhome as he’s seen too many upturned caravans". 

On arrival at Jun's Garage I pretty much begged Jun to let us just camp in the van (now installed in his garage car park) for the night as it was late, and the prospects of finding somewhere to stay seemed very dim. Fortunately Jun agreed. And even more fortunately, it seemed some of the staff lived on site, so that made us feel a bit more secure.

Me next to the van in the garage car park. Hoping the vehicle in the background of this picture is not how our van ends up :-) Steve, Mark's brother, remarked in relation to this picture "this is where the saying 'not a happy camper' comes from" !! 

Bad things come in threes and I thought the third thing after food poisoning and breaking down was going to be a mugging.... When we walked into town to get some dinner, the street was like something from a really bad movie. Drunk, out-of-it people stumbling around everywhere - it was scary. A kid threw a rock at me, which I ignored. When we got into town everything was shut so we then had to get back home via the same street. We tried to call a taxi but it was going to be an hour. I said to Mark “lets do it but for we have to walk really fast with purpose!”

We made it back alive but hungry, hot and tired. Then the silver lining.... a knock on the door from Jun’s mate inviting us to dinner. We said yes - more on our amazing experience in next blog as it’s very late now! 

We wonder what tomorrow will bring….