19th May 2013
During the week we had the wheel bearings
and seals changed on the caravan and the brakes have been adjusted again. I
must make sure I don’t make the same mistake as last time and drive with the
park brake on, no doubt I will be reminded every time we move the van. The
repair guy was out of his depth when it came to fixing the fridge, we knew we
had plenty of gas to the unit but the electronic indicator lights were saying
there was a gas failure so it wouldn’t start. Fortunately Andrew, a young
fellow in a nearby caravan whom we had got to know in Alice Springs (you run
into the same people everywhere), came to our rescue he spent a couple of hours
studying the electronic circuitry, the useless owners manual and even got on
the web, then he started pulling components out of the electronic power board,
which raised my eye brows a little. Eventually the gas failure light went out
and the fridge started to work, our next concern was that as soon as he
replaced the electronic components the light would come back on and we would be
back to square one, however it didn’t and the fridge kept working thank
goodness. As Andrew said he doesn’t exactly know what it was that fixed it but
we are assuming when the gas regulator we had changed in Katherine failed (see previous post), the fridge
electronics got their knickers in a knot and wouldn’t re-set, somehow with the
removing and replacing of components it re-set itself, anyway it’s working and
that’s all we are concerned about. We bought Andrew a carton of special beer as
he wouldn’t take payment and everybody is happy.
Apart from the heat, which ranges from a
cool 25C at night to 34/35C during the day, we have had a relaxing time in
Darwin. We are waiting to catch up with Lisa who will be in Darwin a couple of
days for her work later this week so it has given us a chance to just unwind
and tidy up a few things both in the car and caravan. Having the caravan at
outside storage for several months prior to leaving Brisbane our awning was
showing quite a bit of mould on the inside and from the dirt roads we have been
over the outside was covered in red dust also, so I was able to get to it and
give it a really good clean. Another maintenance job has been to replace the
sacrificial anode in the hot water system, this is a zinc rod that is fitted
into the hot water tank that gradually corrodes or eats away through hard water
and electrolysis instead of the tank eating away.
I had a pleasant surprise this morning on
returning from having a shower Nancy informed me the computer was making funny
noises and thought someone was trying to get through on Skype. Turns out my
brother John in NZ has just started using Skype and was actually fiddling when
he unknowingly dialled us so we ended up having an unexpected conversation so
it was really good to see them.
Incidentally on our journey up the Stuart
Highway from Port Augusta to Darwin including side trips to places like the
Painted Desert, Uluru, Kings Canyon, West Macdonnel Range and Kakadu.
We covered around 5432 kls averaged 22
litres per 100kls and paid anywhere from $152/lt to $230/lt.
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