Caught Between Rockhampton and a Hot Place
29th January, Marlborough and Rockhampton, Australia
Last night the van had needed a jump start just after a 2-hour drive, so I didn't hold up much hope of it starting this morning, but colour me shocked - she started first time! Maybe I wasn't the only thing shocked - perhaps last nights massive lightning strikes had put some juice back in to the old wagon? Actually, scrub that - if we'd been hit, we might well have known about it. That was one serious thunder storm in the early hours of the morning, as we lay there in a large metal container, next to a tree and directly under power lines, plugged in to the camp site's mains supply.
We continued the push south today, only stopping briefly at a place called Marlborough. It's difficult to know what to expect from any of the towns shown on the giant map of Australia that we have been plotting our progress on. Marlborough was not in the smallest typeface on the map (the only way to ascertain the importance/size of each village, town or, once in a blue moon, city), but it certainly wasn't in bold face CAPS. As we pulled in, we guessed that it was little more than a two-horse town, spotting a pub and a convenience store and then not much else before the road came to an end and we turned around and made for the pub (for a food break, let me assure you). As we came back round Manda spotted a front yard with two horses in it - our suspicions had been confirmed.
The pub didn't serve food, so we had a drink instead and grabbed a bite to eat in the store then jumped back in the van. Turned the key and ...
I noticed that I was parked almost immediately in front of a garage that had an RACQ badge on the front. Way to go! If you're gonna break down, why not do it in front of the only garage in the two-horse town that you find yourself in, and the garage that just happens to RACQ-affiliated, eh? I walked the few yards over to the garage and informed them of the dilemma, that being non-movement of the van. The lady there told me I'd still need to phone the RACQ call centre to log the call-out, which I duly did. Minutes later, their telephone rang, and they could 'send someone out'. It was laughable in a way, particularly as the someone was not there and was on his lunch break. About five minutes later the mechanic - the lady's husband - appeared out of the pub that we'd just come from and diagnosed the problem as a starter motor that was on its way out.
Thankfully, we got going and headed for Rockhampton, and then spent the first hour there pulling in to auto-electricians to see if anyone could look at the van without us booking it in - I even left it running as it was parked on the driveways for fear of it not starting again. There was a danger in doing this, too, as VW Kombis are air-cooled - the engine only gets cooled down effectively when the vehicle is in motion and the air intakes are scooping whatever air they can into the engine bay; leaving it idling after 2 hours of travel in the hot Australian climate is not advised, folks!
We soon gave up on getting the van seen to and decided to get ourselves somewhere to stay for the evening. I parked in a spot that offered a little space in front should we need to bump-start it in the morning.