I waited for the phone to ring, but no-one called about Ethel's condition. It was mid-day and I hopped on a bus while Manda stayed back at the caravan. I just had a few errands to run, some emails to send, basically nothing much of interest. After my brief trip into the city, I got off the bus and crossed the road to grab a couple of cold drinks from the Mobil service station, the one that has an adjoining garage and a broken-down Ethel on its forecourt. As I came over I noticed that they had made a start on the van so I asked what they'd discovered.
A few mysteries have been resolved. Our electrical fault appears to be due to some heavy-duty metal piping that connects to a cooling grill (not a standard Kombi engine part) that had worked a bit loose and had been banging against the coil, causing electrical shorts, fuses to be blown and also causing merry hell with the alternator. The bad smell that was coming from the van has been identified - the electrical problems were causing a regulator to melt - burning plastic every time we drive, nice! The pipes can easily be insulated to stop the problem arising again, but in the meantime we need the alternator to be rebuilt or replaced and the battery will need another charge, assuming that's still working OK! Maybe we'll get the old girl back tomorrow, along with an unwelcome repair bill. Speaking of unwelcome, I still have that speeding fine to pay. Rats.
In the evening we met up with our new friend Tony. Yesterday we'd mentioned our visit to Mount Coot-tha and how we'd like to see it at night. Knowing that we were presently without transport, Tony offered to drive us up there. As we got on so well yesterday and that we realised he was not a loony :-), we decided to take him up on the offer. At 7.3o in the evening, we all went up to take in the glittering views of the city stretching out some 7km away in the distance.
Brisbane at night, viewed from Mount Coot-tha.
We then sat down for some hot chocolates and coffees which, once again, Tony paid for despite our trying to convince him otherwise. It's amazing, two days ago we didn't know him from Adam (actually, I only know one Adam and he lives in Japan, so it was a safe bet that he wasn't Adam ... anyway, I digress) and yet we were made to feel very welcome. Tony was just being a good Samaritan and while it's unlikely that we'll bump into him again (or not for a very long time) we can definitely class him as a friend. Later, as we said our goodbyes, Tony said: "See you on the web!" and indeed he will, but he'll also be seeing himself on there too (see yesterday's post).
And now for the serious, Jerry Springer-style final thought ...
Of course, there is another thing that travellers should be aware of - and we are, I promise you. A complete stranger might not be what they seem, so don't accept hospitality without question and never go off with a total stranger without telling someone first, if you're even slightly unsure. Tony? Not a problem at all - I mean, we knew where he worked, we tell everyone what we're up to (I am referring to this web site, of course) and if he turned out to be an axe murderer there'd be enough clues on my mobile phone and PC to nail him straight away! Not that it would help us much, but you get the idea.