Sunday afternoon
Well until the story is published all I can say is that I destroyed 2 engine mounts and I overheated the old girl twice!
So here we were back by ourselves at South Pambula with engine mounts tied to the chassis with fencing wire. What to do now?
Well north meant hills, so did wast (Brown Mountain). So with nothing more planned than a direction we decided to go south. And south we did go on the Princes Highway.
The advantage of engine mounts is the biggest time they cause an issue is under high torque. That basically means low range and to a certain extent 1st gear high range – so basically as long as I took it easy on take off’s I was quite fine to keep going.
We arrived at Eden and checked out the local caravan park. After being advised that staying the night at an unpowered site would cost over $80 we did a few phone calls. Having no luck with prices until we got lucky with a caravan park at Lakes Entrance. $43 for a powered site it was an easy choice.
So south we kept going. Across the border and past Cann River (Start of the Monaro Hway) and stopping at Orbost (start of the Snowy River).
The kids had a quick rest and we continued on to Lakes Entrance, arriving just after 2100h. A quick set up, some dinner and into bed we went.
One very long eventful day indeed!
Monday
We pretty much made it a rest day. The missus got some washing done and the owner of the caravan park mentioned about a Landrover bloke out at Nicholson. So I did a phone call and was advised that 2 new mounts would be in the next morning – you beauty!
I took the kids down to the beach and had a look around Lakes Entrance – what a great place. We had some fun in the sand, took a look at the Information Centre and then the kids had a big play at the caravan park.
A few kicks of the football and a couple of games of Uno finished of the day.
Tuesday
Packed up and headed up the road stopping on the way out of Lakes Entrance for some photos of the entrance to the lakes.
We arrived at Nicholson to find out that the mounts wouldn’t arrive until the next day. Thankfully he found 1 mount and a second hand one off of a V8 which should’ve fitted. So I grabbed them and continued on through Bairnsdale to Sale where we stopped for a play at the park.
Being that it wasn’t quite lunch we decided to push on to Golden Beach and arrived at the general store a little after 1200h. The fish and chips were too hard to pass up, so we grabbed $6 worth and a load of bread and had chips in bread (well obviously!). It tasted absolutely brilliant (so much so that I went back again a few days later!).
From there we started looking for a campsite to set up at. Paradise Beach was pretty much full so we started looking at the N.P campsites – there are 20 seperate areas between Golden Beach and Seaspray. We ended up finding a brilliant little spot at campsite 18 not far from Seaspray and set up there.
A quick duck into Seaspray for some fly repellant (I would recommend you go to the Golden Beach store) which cost us over $13 – for something you normally get for $4 at a supermarket!
Heading back to camp we had a look at the beach, made a fire, chatted to the Parks ranger and generally relaxed. A few games of Uno and it was bed.
Did I mention that we had the campsite to ourselves!!!
Wednesday
A nice lazy sleep in and we finally got up and moving. I got into the engine mounts and the kids went and had a play at the beach. I forgot how much fun it is doing engine mounts on the sand with basic tools….
Anyway I got the drivers side one in once I found a couple of flat rocks, my jack mount, a bottle jack and a hayman reece pin to jack the engine up enough to get it in! The drivers side decided to be a tad more difficult. I managed to drop the engine twice when the jack slipped which twice scared the living crap outta me!
However thankfully I had already braced it so it couldn’t fall far in case that did happen. So I didn’t cause any further damage other than to my ego. So I get it all lifted, try and put in the engine mount and find out that the mounting bolts in the new mount are too large too fit. Bugger!
So I decided to recycle the one from the drivers side and I put that onto the passenger side. With this done I secured it with fencing wire and packed everything up. By now it was early afternoon – it had taked me nearly 3 hours to get that far.
The rest of the day was spent at the beach relaxing and having a swim. Was a very enjoyable day and I certainly did not want to head back towards home.
Thursday
And the day we were meant to head towards home. However none of us wanted to leave, so we didn’t. We went across to Golden Beach and grabbed another $6 chips and a loaf of bread. Took them to the beach and sat down and ate them, whilst watching a seal play havoc on the blokes surf fishing! I think I would’ve gave up with him out there.
The kids learnt a lot from the fisherman down there, who were more than happy to chat to the kids explaing what they were doing as they did it. It’s good to see people having time for kids to go out of their way and do that. I was truly appreciative of their time.
We headed back to camp where the kids and missus went back to the beach. I stayed with the little fella and spent a couple of good quality hours with him – even if he slept a fair bit of that. I also caught up on finances, e-mails and the forums whilst I had the chance.
Not seeing hide or hare of the kids I started the fire and got dinner going – was a beef casserolle done in the camp oven. The kids and missus arrived with a heap of pippies which I cooked up for the kids – they’d never tasted them before.
With the now entree and dinner over, we toasted some marshmallows, had a few games of Uno and put the kids to bed. A few glasses of wine over the fire and we called it a night ourselves. I don’t regret staying for another day.
P.S – also forgot to mention the free Roulette show we had during the afternoon.
Friday
Well we couldn’t put it off. We had to leave. So we packed up and headed out through Sale and cut through Fernbank to Dargo. Getting out of the vehicle we decided to have a counter meal at the Dargo Pub. We really couldn’t afford it, but you only get the opportunity so often in life and we decided not to pass it up.
And it wasn’t disappointing at all. The kids meals were $8 and they really struggled to finish them, and my burger was beautiful. We also seen a Defender 130 who pulled up next to my old girl – looked like it gets used for what it was intended too!
Heading out of Dargo it was the long climb up to the Grant cemetery turn-off. And long it ended up being as the old girl overheated about 7km’s up the road. Great! Looking back at it I think it was overheating because there was no fan shroud. Well I hope that’s the problem otherwise I’ve caused internal issues to the head when I overheated earlier on in the week – guess time will tell!
So I let her cool down and whilst waiting I had a gentleman and his wife on holiday who stopped and made sure we were Ok. They offered to tow the trailer up to the top of the hill to take the load ofo of the old girl – how great is that. We decided to leave her hooked onto the Landy, however I did the next part in low range to take the strain off of the engine (lower gearing allowing the torque to do the work).
She still got warm/hot but it didn’t overboil which was a bonus, however it did take quite a while to get there. We stopped and said a heartfelt thankyou to the could in the Ford Ranger and they headed back to Dargo.
Allowing the old girl to cool down a little more we continued onto the Dargo High Plains Rd. I absolutely loved this drive. It reminded me of Tassie in so many ways, and the air was so nice, cool and clean. I really wish I was back there now!
We didn’t see one vehicle or person from the Grant Cemetery turn-off until we got to the Great Alpine Rd – how’s that for enjoyment!
However all good things come to an end and that’s what it did. So back on the bitumen it was the long drop down into Harrietville where we stopped and had a soak in the river, and then on through Bright to Myrtleford where we turned off.
Making it into Yackandandah we stopped at the park so the kids could have a play and then continued the 1/2 hour to home.
And didn’t it feel weird getting home. It didn’t seem right this time after so much time away. Was kinda awkward so to speak. And it really sucked mowing the lawns the next day too.
So overall to sum up it was another great trip. Again we learnt a lot of things and again we got to see some areas that we’ve never seen before – and again it wasn’t planned 🙂
When things go wrong you always have a choice as to your next move. Ours has always been to try and keep the holiday going, even if it requires a re-think on your original plans. That is exactly what we did this trip and we got to see some areas that we’d never normally go due to the amount of people that are normally there (e.g. Lakes Entrance)
The old girl had a few problems but you expect them in older vehicles. Short of upgrading vehicles every 5 years you are always going to have problems, and you could even get them in the newer vehicles. The advantage so to speak of the older vehicles is that you can generally fix them up enough on the side of the track to keep you going.
Anyway thanks for reading.
Cheers
Chris