The plan was to make for Goulburn at flank speed so Maureen could keep her appointment with the specialist in Sydney on 17th Dec.
We left on Thursday after lunch and all went well until Friday afternoon when the tront left tyre blew out nearly pulling us through a bridge railingand into a dry creek bed about 12 feet below. It took 3 hours to change the wheel. We were thankful for assistance of railway gangers who put the blown tyre and wheel in the back of the Suzuki.
fellow travellers Dave and Karen also in a Denning stopped to help which was fantastic and they looked after us until we got to Port Augusta. They were a godsend and went above and beyond for us.
I bought 2 new steer tyres at Port Augusta.
We set out for Renmark and Mildura and got nearly to the hamlet of Spalding when the engine lost power and stopped!! We had run out of fuel. I hadn't taken the headwind into account.
We were parked on a narrow road with fences close and on the upside of a hill with the left wheels in a gutter so the bus was sitting with the left rear canted down at a fair angle. Decided it was too dangerous to sleep in the bus in it's position plus the angle it was on would have made sleeping a problem.
Booked into this really cute pub in Spalding. It was a very old long low stone building with walls about a foot thick Although it was fairly original there had been a lot of renovation work done on it recently, so although the rooms were "basic old"they were freshly painted and comfortable.
The second night we were there, they were having their "monthly social" which was Bingo and supper afterwards ( Maureen says "it was bingo like I've never seen it played before I tell you" ) but she really enjoyed herself.
After 2 nights staying in the pub and many calls to the mechanic in Adelaide who tried to get us going over the phone with much wrestling with the engine, it was decided he should come up here.... but not until this afternoon. Hope all goes okay.... time will tell.
This is Bruce Donaldson who did the inchassis rebuild on the engine. He provided one of the most pleasant transactions I have ever had. We were able to live in our bus in his yard for 10 days while he did the rebuild and nothing was too much trouble. So if you need your detrioit motor fixed, just ask and I will give you his details.
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