First of all connection problems between the van and the car. No blinkers, no lights and no fridge. We stop off at Wagga Wagga to get the problem seen to. At first it was difficult to find anyone with the time to even look at it but then we found this one guy who not only looked at it, found the problem, temporarily fixed it in under 10 minutes. He didn't want to charge us because it was easy done and refused our offer of money so we offered him a 6 pack of VB instead. He happily accepted the beer. Top bloke.
We stop off at Gundagai for lunch and a rest at a local park.
On our way out of Gundagai we stop off to the see the "Dog on the Tuckerbox" statue. Expecting a much bigger statue to be honest. Before we set eyes on it I had talked it up to the girls about seeing a huge cattle dog on the tucker box. Thinking it would be like the other big things around Australia. The girls said "is that it". Big let down. The meaning behind it is important and thats all that matters but kids will be kids and it was my bad anyway. Ooopsys
Back on the road and just 60km before Goulburn the car started to overheat badly. We pull into a rest area and wait for the thermostat to come down. Not sure what to think but at this stage we believe the car is working hard towing the caravan on all the hills. Its never done this before so I'm thinking its more than that. We probably should of called RACQ at this stage but we thought it had cooled down enough to make it to Goulburn at least.
We get back onto the highway and within minutes the water temperature gauge is rising again and rising fast.
We rest it along the shoulder of the highway a number of times but there are lots of steep inclines and bends making it not only harder on the car but there are safety concerns with stopping along the shoulder.
Bless Trev who saves us
A truck driver speaks to us via the 2 way and we tell him our problems. He pulls over immediately, reverses back and parks behind our van to protect us from other traffic in particular trucks while he sus's out our situation.
Trev, the truck driver moves the truck in front, connects the towing strap to our car and his truck and tows us out of harms way very slowly and smoothly and takes us to a small town called Gunning at a park along the creek. Its a free stay here with toilets and cold showers. There are other campers here who look on with amazement and questioning eyes at a truck towing us in. They are all hanging to know whats going on.
Sure enough it takes our new neighbours minutes to ask us questions about our predicament.
Tony the NRMA guy poses for a photo for the blog.
NRMA come and assess our vehicle. He suspects it to be a thermostat issue which is what Waz also suspected and organisers a tow truck to pick the car, caravan and us in the morning to take us into Mitsubishi in Goulburn. Hopefully Tony is right and its a quick and inexpensive fix. Fingers crossed.
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