On Holiday, with Drama: Day 1

I have found an unbelievable, wonderful place to spend a few days. It's about 4h 30m drive North of Brisbane. A comfy, cozy, relaxed coastal town called Woodgate. Un-effing-believable.

But...

The start of the weekend was filled with a lot of adventure and drama. The plan was to take four days, travel to Woodgate, head back on the 24th, have the 25th in Brisbane, fly to Melbourne on the 26th to meet up with a friend who is flying over to Australia, spend a few days there and then head back to Brissie together. The first leg was Brisbane to Woodgate, which is a bit of a drive. Most of it is motorway (what we'd call a freeway in the States), though beyond about 125k North of the city, there are only two lanes the rest of the way. There are plenty of places to stop along the way, but the farther North you go, the longer the stretches. Unfortunately for me, on a 20k stretch between towns, I noticed my battery light was on, and then I saw the water temperature was in the red. I pulled over as soon as I could, but the problem is that the verge is narrow, and there is a sharp drop-off from the tarmac. So, I had to travel about 3k like this. Smarty-pants that I am, I turned on the heater all the way to help a little bit, but still. I was very worried.

I was finally able to pull over into a truck rest stop, so there was plenty of room. Nulla Flats Creek is the name of the town. Sigh. I opened up the bonnet (hood to those in the States) and the the coolant reserve system was boiling. There was coolant sprayed around a bit (not everywhere, though), and coolant was dripping from the bottom of the engine onto the ground. I climbed up on the roo bar (bull bar in the States) to get a better look at the engine and then saw that I had thrown a fan belt...one of two. Fortunately for me, the belt was in one piece and looked like it was in good shape. But, there's no way I had the right tools to put that back on.

I thought about it for a bit, walked around, had a drink of water in the shade, thought some more, and decided to call the auto club (RACQ). Turns out that my membership had expired on the 18th of December (it was the 20th). Fortunately, the nice person said, they allow three months grace period. After a bit of checking, they decided I was in the Howard district, so they'd call the local service in Howard and have me towed back there...that way, I wouldn't have to pay any tow charges.

About 20 minutes later, up pulls the tow fellow in a late model Toyota 4x4...not posh, very serviceable...with a trailer. We had a chat, he had a look at the engine, and lo, he pointed out that the water pump was probably broken. Then he proceeded to warn me about the possibility of a broken head gasket and a possible cracked head...just to prepare me for the worst, he said. Feh. Having just put a new head gasket on the thing two months ago, I was not happy about the thought of buying a new head gasket, but what are you going to do if it needs it?

He loaded the Land Rover onto the trailer, secured it really, really well, and off we went, back to the sleepy little town of Howard. Then, we got to the next stage, which is what to do next. He said there was no way he could look at the thing until Monday, so now what did I want to do? I called up the people running the place I was staying in Woodgate telling them what was going on, and we agreed if it got to around 4:30PM, I'd call and let them know so they could turn on the light and leave the door open.

Find a hire car (rental), seemed like the best thing to do. And the best place, he said, was Maryborough. So then, how to get to Maryborough? Taxi, of course. Thirty minutes later, a taxi from Maryborough arrives and drives me back to that city...30k. Only to find both car rental places closed up tighter than a drum, and no one answering the phones.

Oh, great. Things just went from bad to worse. There I am in Maryborough -- a fine city, mind you, but not my destination -- with no wheels and no way to get to my destination, and 30k away from my Land Rover. Not good. Meter is running in the cab. "Where would you like to go next?" Quick decision time -- a motel that I had stayed at before...the Blue Shades Comfort Inn. A fine motel, reasonable rates, very quiet. The woman who runs the place has a three year old daughter who is very cute and very shy but has a big voice.

OK. I have a place to stay, I have a change of clothes, I have my toothbrush, and I have my keys, wallet and money. Oh, and importantly, I have something to read. It's now 4:00PM. So, I take out my mobile phone and call the holiday rental people. Thus began a two hour game of phone tag. The gal at the holiday rental place was incredibly helpful, calling her husband, his dad, this people, that people, me, her brother. All for nought. I did come close to catching a ride with her brother on the way North...I missed him by 10 minutes, I guess. By the time they called him back, he had passed Maryborough, so that options was gone. Her husband's dad ran the RACQ shop in Childers, which is the next big town north of Maryborough, and also has the turn-off to Woodgate. He explained to me that he hated working on Land Rovers because they were an asshole of a car, and that in general, he recommended I have the car serviced at the Land Rover shop in either Hervey Bay (pronounced like Harvey Bay) or Bundaberg, the next really big city north of Childers.

I knew about the shop in Hervey Bay, since I passed it on the way into town one time I visited that city. I remember noticing a fine collection of Defenders, Range Rovers and other Land Rovers. There was one especially fine Defender 130, which is the king cab pickup version of my Land Rover. Beautiful condition, a real sight to behold, the true workhorse of the Land Rover line. Anyway, by then it was 5:30PM, and there was absolutely no way that any shop anywhere in Queensland outside of Brisbane was open, except perhaps for restaurants. Holiday weekend, and Saturday afternoon in general...not much business, especially at a repair shop. So, I was definitely committed to staying in Maryborough for the night, and probably until Monday morning.

The situation looked pretty grim. But, at the same time, the only way to see it was as an adventure. There is no way that I will forget this holiday, and I will always have memories associated with this part of Queensland. It is burned into my mind. Once the phone calls from the rental place and her family came to an end, I was resigned to staying overnight and through the weekend. Not great, but not many other options. So, off I go to find something to eat, since I did not bring my food with me from the Land Rover. I happened to be staying near the commercial big box strip in town, so I walked over to the local Hungry Jack's (Burger King -- I don't know why) and had something to eat. On the way back to the motel, I came across a bottle shop (liquor store), so went in to find some liquor...if there's one thing I needed, it was a good slug of high-proof alcohol to calm me down. The locally made liquor is Bundaberg Rum, so I got a 700ml bottle of that, plus some Coca Cola, and took those back to the motel. In the bottle shop, I got a very, very suspicious look and chat from the owner...kind of unfriendly. But then, I suspect he knows all of his customers; he probably almost never gets new people in the shop.

One thing that I've never really come to grips with in Australia is the drive through bottle shop. There are whole chains devoted to drive throughs. It's really weird. But, you literally drive into the store. It's covered up so even if it's raining or it's high noon, you are under cover. Roll down the window, and tell them what you want. They will go get it for you, load it into your vehicle. You pay, and off you go. You don't have to get out of the car, but most people do, at least to pay. It's kind of nice, but very weird...there's really no recognition that you might want to browse before you buy. Nope. Wham, bam, I'm a Bundy man, and off you go. It works for the Aussies well enough, but I hardly ever know what I want by name. I want to go look at stuff...I have more of a visual memory.

Anyway, the bottle shop in Maryborough that I chose wasn't drive through, but kind of unfriendly. My money is as good as anybodies, so whatever. Plus, since I was walking, I needed a bag, which was not close to hand. The owner was definitely put out, but whatever...I had my rum and coke, and I was going to relax after an afternoon of stress.

I walked back to the hotel, had a couple of good stiff drinks, and fell asleep.

So ended day 1.