8^th Leg

As you can see from the above we have arrived. In actual fact we are at Mosman which is a little north of Cairns. The trip from Mount Isa has been very eventful and we are certainly glad to have finally made our destination.

We were up early at Mount Isa and even had a short swim to start the day off well. We left our camping spot and drove into the town proper and to the supermarket to pick up a few supplies. Whilst I was in the shop Tom got chatting to one of the locals, a delightful fellow called Joe Law. Joe gave him a few leads to follow up and so the next several hours were spent, unfortunately fruitlessly, trying to locate a carburettor.

Finally we decided to continue to liase with our contacts in the veteran and vintage car world across Australia by phone. Shayne Harris, our principal backup person, made many phone calls on our behalf in an attempt to locate the elusive item. Finally Tito Teraci, an Austin Seven friend, rang Barry Ryle, another wonderful friend, at about midnight in pursuit of the missing item. Barry left his comfortable bed right there and then and went down to his shed and located our desperately needed carbie. He parcelled it and some other bits and pieces up and had them in an express post bag first thing Tuesday morning. Our special thanks go to all of those kind friends who participated in the search.

However we were unaware of these future developments when we left Mount Isa at 11:30 Tuesday morning.

The car while running reasonably well on the open road (in fact at times better than it had ever ran) was, to say the very least, difficult in traffic and almost impossible at traffic lights. Because the fuel drip was at constant rate regardless of the speed we were travelling when we stopped it would begin to choke up on the excess. The engine would fade and then stall and the only way Tom could control the problem at all was to rev the engine really hard to burn up all of that extra unused fuel. It was cruel on Matilda and crueller still on my nerves but Tom (who will of course deny it) really loved the challenge of overcoming the problem. The really bizarre fact was that without our carburettor we did much better speed, averaging 50km/hr and had a far better fuel consumption, an improvement of at least 10%. The frustrating part for Tom was that he had felt that he had finally cracked the problems with that carbie and now it was gone and he would have to start all over again.

Enough talk about mechanics and back to the real fun.

We left Mount Isa determined to reach Cairns by Thursday, no easy feat I can tell you especially leaving with half a day already gone.

As we were travelling on Tuesday Tom noticed that our water had a distinctly mouldy taste. It was extremely unpleasant to say the least. We tried changing the water at the next stop, Cloncurry, but it remained almost undrinkable. We decided that the water containers, which were constantly filled with warm often brackish water, must have become contaminated. The only solution we could come up with was to add some Condy’s Crystals to each container, allow them to stand for several hours to decontaminate and then to add lemon juice to the solution. The lemon juice forms a non-soluble salt and the water clears almost immediately. The Condy’s Crystals was not a problem (I had them with me) but the lemon juice was another problem. Finally we obtained that at a petrol station in Richmond. Only problem was we could not buy petrol there as their pumps we out of order and had been all day. Imagine the dilemma for a petrol station in a remote area when the pumps are down, but it is so far out of the way that the service people are reluctant to come and solve the problem. My heart went out to the owners who were forced to turn customers away because they just could not serve them. Luckily for us, there was another service station in town and our problem was solved, but we were very aware that in many of the places we have visited there is only one service station and a whole community is reliant upon it. For those living in the outback nothing can be taken for granted, every eventuality must be foreseen and a contingency plan made.

Having filled up we set off to put another few kilometres under our belts before stopping for the night. We added about 40-50 kms before deciding that enough was enough and we pulled into a rest for the night. Queensland has the best rest areas in Australia. They are clean, litter free, with a covered table and benches and with flushing toilets (with paper!!). We were so glad to pull up that we rolled out our makeshift swag (and if there is one thing I’m going to get when we get home it’s a proper swag) and climbed wearily into bed.

We are not the only road users and before long a truck driver who wanted to listen to his fellow truckies chat on the CB as they passed, joined us. Shortly there after another truckie joined him and they discussed a problem the second fellow was having with one of the trailers. This was duly unhitched and the truck driven around the bay and out and in again just to try the whole system. Finally content that the problem was solved the first truckie went to sleep while the second left to continue his journey. It was not long before a third truck drove up but this time the driver was too tired to turn the engine off and so left it running for the night. Every so often there would be a loud hiss of air as it was expelled from somewhere under the truck. The original truck left at some time during this period but was replaced shortly by a fourth truck. Somewhere about now a nest of ants, the large meat eating variety found us and unfortunately I was on their menu. I was so glad when it was morning and we had to get up and leave. Actually we got chatting to the very last truck driver and he was a delightful character who was amazed to see Matilda out in the middle of nowhere.

We set off at about 7am ready for another long day. And long it was. At one point we pulled into a little town called Pentland, pulled under a tree and fell sound asleep sitting bolt upright in our little car. We woke twenty minutes later feeling much better and got back onto the road to finish the stint to Townsville. At Townsville a fellow car enthusiast Bill Bunt who guided us around the town and put us on the road to Cairns met us. It was an invaluable help because it minimised the number of traffic lights we encountered and reduced the stress experienced by us all. After a wonderful cup of coffee and chat with Bill we were off again to get a head start towards Cairns. We managed about 40-50kms before we again started feeling tired. We saw a sign for a rest area and turned left. Unfortunately it was 28kms away and there was no way we were going to be able to manage that! A few hundred metres up the road we could see a fork in the road and some sort of a shelter sitting in the middle. We pulled over into what was actually a bus shelter. We were so tired we just pulled our swag down and climbed in and went to sleep. The weather had other ideas and after a little while the rain came down. We jumped up and pulled the swag under the bus shelter and Tom lay at the side of and I lay under the seat (with about 10cms head clearance). Who cares, we were dry and that was all that mattered. In actual fact it stopped raining almost immediately we were under the shelter but we were unwilling to risk it and went back to sleep. It would have been quite a surprise for any commuter to find us there in the morning. However that was not to be. I was up early and we were off at 5am on the final leg of our outward journey.

Would you believe it, it started raining and raining hard. After all of these weeks we were cold! I had a jacket but Tom had to pretend that he didn’t mind (which he did very well I must say).

We stopped off at a delightful little town called Tully and met an old friend of Tom’s who has a property about 10-12kms out of town. But it was a short visit and we were on the road again very quickly.

Cairns! It was such an incredible sense of achievement to arrive that we were both on a real high. That didn’t last long as poor old Matilda chugged and shuddered through the traffic lights and road works. Finally about half way into a set of traffic lights she said (or so we thought) "enough is enough" and refused to move. Totally distraught I jumped out and pushed her across the lights. Tom was about to get out and sort the problem when I twigged to the problem "Tom, do you think we could be out of petrol?"

Simple answer to a simple problem clouded only by our total preoccupation with the larger problem. We filled her from a can and off we went. Headed for Mosman and our friend Clancy’s home. The drive along the coast from Cairns to Mosman has to be experienced to be believed. The road runs along the coast and twists around between hillside and sea. It was a beautiful trip and I envy those who are able to drive it regularly (however I guess for the local drivers getting caught behind Matilda for miles on such a windy road was not such a great experience although we pulled over as often as was possible on the narrow road).

We arrived in Mosman a little travel stained but with an incredible sense of accomplishment. On our arrival we were thrilled to find that the parcel containing the carburettor had arrived and Tom and Clancy, Tom’s long-time and dear friend, went immediately to the post office to collect it. Well pleased, we were finally able to relax. .

Showered and fed we were quickly refeshed and went into Port Douglas for the evening.

Clancy is an entertainer who performs at various venues in town and we went and watched his one man show "The Cane Toad Races" at the Ironbar. It was just the medicine we needed and we laughed until we could laugh no more. We wished we could have heard his country music show, but we had missed that by just one night. We made up for it by listening to his latest album, which is shortly to be released. It is most unusual set of old Australian ballads sung A Cappella with occasional didgeridoo playing in the background. We loved it and are looking forward to seeing it released to the general public.

Finally after a wonderful evening it was off to bed and a day of relaxation in Mosman to look forward to on the morrow.

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