The sound of the ocean is obviously relaxing which explains perhaps why I almost completely missed what small opportunity there was for a sunrise photo and did completely the pre-dawn light that is usually the best colour of the morning. But a quick walk on the beach as our part of the world woke up was very refreshing.
I love the way the water carves out these patterns in the sand after high tide.
You'll notice that there seem to be a few photos missing from this post...... it wasn't the best day really. After being tempted to book in for an additional night we reluctantly packed everything away and got ready to depart, which didn't take very much time because the car had stayed hooked up to the van overnight. Having started the car to warm it up and going back in the van to do a last minute check, I noticed that the fridge wasn't working as it should have been on 12 volt for the drive to Townsville. We hadn't at that point checked the lights on the van as nothing had been touched from our departure the previous morning, but on running a check we had absolutely nothing working - again. We checked the fuse that had caused the same issue in Mt Isa but it was fine. Having absolutely no idea where to start looking for the problem, after some thought and not just a bit of apprehension, we opted to drive the 45km to Townsville given we really only had one left hand turn and one right hand turn to get to the van park and I would just need to be careful braking if there was a vehicle behind me.
The trip went smoothly enough but both of us were concerned and a bit deflated. We reached the park by 11.00am, and immediately called RACV who once again sent out an RACQ representative saying there would be a 90 minute wait. In the meantime I figured I might as well start some washing (yes - again) as clearly we weren't going anywhere until RACQ arrived - about 2 hours later. After explaining the situation that had occurred previously at Mt Isa this guy barely tested anything and just basically threw his hands up in the air and said "you need an auto electrician".
Given it was Saturday I had grave fears for what it might cost to have someone come out to look at the car on a weekend and we talked about maybe just phoning and asking if it could be looked at Monday. The van park had recommended a guy so we gave him a call. He said he didn't charge weekend rates, and would prefer to look at it today as he was busy Monday. He was on his way to another job but would give us a call as soon as he knew how long this job would be to give us an idea of what time he would be able to get to us. We just had to wait at the park because we had absolutely no idea when he would call and didn't want to be making him wait for our return if we went anywhere. Unfortunately we had planned to go and watch nephew Matty play football again this being Saturday, their last game before finals, but given he was playing at 2.15 and it was already 2.20pm when Auto Guy called to say he was on his way, there was no chance we were going to make the match at this point.
Finally auto guy turned up about 2.50pm and things didn't start well when he realised it was a woman he had to deal with for the information, and he was a bit snarky. I gave him as much information as I could about the issue both previously and this time. I don't know what point it was but it was like a switch tripped about 20 minutes later and suddenly he was human again and actually chatting and having a bit of a joke. He finally located the issue, a plug underneath the car joining wiring which had overheated, and (we hope) fixed the issue by removing the plug and just wiring all the way through with heavier wire. Whatever he did we finally had lights and the fridge working again - $150 thank you very much - and there went the day as it was about 4.45pm by the time he had packed everything away and been paid for his services.
We were both pretty flat and decided to try to cheer up a bit by partaking in another Gelatissimo ice-cream. I was feeling rather ill by this time as I'd barely had any water all day and of course with the "excitement" had both missed lunch. We phoned through our apologies for missing football and headed back to camp to start packing everything away. The good thing was a warm day with a nice breeze had completely dried all the washing.
We got a call from Shane's brother suggesting we go out for dinner so we met at a very busy pub just up the road from the van park and enjoyed a tasty meal, and of course the pleasure of Joe & Janine's company once again. It was very sad to say goodbye at the end of the night but both of us so happy to have had the opportunity to spend some quality time with them.
Back at the park it was quite late so we decided to leave any packing up until the morning. Originally we had planned to only drive to Charters Towers, 145km away, but we decided we would drive through to Belyando Crossing to make up a bit of time - a total of almost 350km.
88km
Total - 9,578 km
Top today 26°c - expecting overnight 13°c
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