Crackenback Trip - Day 3

Day 3 – 26/3/2012 - Molong to Cooma 

It was the first time that we had to use ear plugs to try and get some sleep. Even then you could still hear the trucks, at least the ear plugs made it a bit more bearable. It was also bit of a sleepless night with the thought of how and where to get the wheel stud fixed. On top of all that we were also getting used to the fact that we were now on daylight saving time – having to get up at 6am when we knew it was actually 5am was a bit of a shock to the body! It was about 6 degrees when we got up that morning so it was good practice for our winter travelling.

We were hoping to push all the way through to Jindabyne today but it wasn't the case. After breakfast we made a few calls to the Mitsubishi dealer in Cooma but they didn't have stock of any of the wheel studs. So “Plan B” was to head through Canberra to a Mitsubishi dealership that had some in stock. Unfortunately they were fully booked and couldn't fit us in to get them fitted. So we decided to pick up the spares and then head to Cooma and see if anyone could fit us in that afternoon to get them fitted.

A street in Boorowa

Generally the driving in Canberra is pretty good, but trying to find a park near the Mitsubishi dealership with the camper in tow was an effort and a half. There was just no parking anywhere! There were just cars parked everywhere and not an available space to be seen. We ended having to just keep driving around in the hope that we could find a park and then find our way back to the dealership. Eventually we found a Bunnings store about 1km from the dealership. Luckily they had a decent size car park and I was able to take up a few spaces there. Jodie stayed with the vehicles and I walked back to the dealership. About 45 minutes later we were back on the road and trying to find our way out of Canberra.

At Cooma we found a mechanic that could fit us in first thing the following morning. This suited us ok. We left a day early so by spending the extra night in Cooma it put us back to our original timetable. Also by stopping early for the day, we were able to do a bit of a stock up on groceries. We had a nice quiet night at the Cooma Van Park – after dinner we watched a bit of TV in their common room and played a couple of games of table tennis! Haven't done that for years – but it was lots of fun