Friday 26th June. Coen to Mount Carbine.
We took off a little later than usual as I wanted to get some photos of Coen before we left. We still had many hours of gravel travelling to do, though we knew we would get some relief from a few stretches of bitumen. Our luck ran out about half an hour from Coen when travelling on a very bad gravel road with many big stones we heard a huge bang, for a split second I thought I had a puncture and then to my dismay I saw in my mirror the rear window had a hole in it and as I slowed down the shaking of the car collapsed it bit by bit until it all lay in the back of the car. We had flicked up a rock that had bounced off the front of the trailer and into the window. Nothing we could do about it and we still had another 400 Kms to travel on dirt roads. As we continued on the car filled with dust and we and everything else inside was covered in it. We were both very tense so we decided to try and get to Mount Carbine so we could clean up and assess the damage. However we did stop off at Spilt Rock which we had by passed on the way up, so we climbed up the rocky hill in 30 + deg and very sunny to view some ancient Aboriginal rock art of people and animals, some of which dates back over 13000 years.
We took off a little later than usual as I wanted to get some photos of Coen before we left. We still had many hours of gravel travelling to do, though we knew we would get some relief from a few stretches of bitumen. Our luck ran out about half an hour from Coen when travelling on a very bad gravel road with many big stones we heard a huge bang, for a split second I thought I had a puncture and then to my dismay I saw in my mirror the rear window had a hole in it and as I slowed down the shaking of the car collapsed it bit by bit until it all lay in the back of the car. We had flicked up a rock that had bounced off the front of the trailer and into the window. Nothing we could do about it and we still had another 400 Kms to travel on dirt roads. As we continued on the car filled with dust and we and everything else inside was covered in it. We were both very tense so we decided to try and get to Mount Carbine so we could clean up and assess the damage. However we did stop off at Spilt Rock which we had by passed on the way up, so we climbed up the rocky hill in 30 + deg and very sunny to view some ancient Aboriginal rock art of people and animals, some of which dates back over 13000 years.
We made Mount Carbine and on checking in they could see the state of our car, trailer and of course us. They offered us the use of their vacuum cleaner and hose so we could clean up a bit. We managed to clean the outside of the car and trailer before it got dark and before the water pumps were turned off, as they are still on water restrictions. We will do the rest tomorrow. We cleaned ourselves up with nice hot showers and had something to eat and a few drinks, which we needed. Tomorrow I will have to call the insurance company and then we’ll have to go back to Cairns again so we can get our front windscreen and rear window replaced! And make a temporary number plate until we can get a replacement. My we are having FUN!
We were very exhausted but happy to be secure for the night and with it a lot cooler we took to our bed for a good night’s rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment