Tasmania Trip - Day 28

Day 28 - 21/2/2014 – St Helens to Myrtle Park

After a windy night in the van, the next morning was a lot calmer. The first stop of the morning was St Columba Falls.

Oz Trip - Day 114 to 121

Day 114 to 121 – 23/8/2012 to 30/8/2012 – Broome (again)

The camper had been fixed and we were able to pick it up at 8am. After picking it up we went back to the Hotel to repack everything back into the camper. After checking out and on our way out of town we had to swing past the van park to pick up all of our frozen food out of the camp kitchen freezer in the van park. The bar fridge in the Hotel wasn't big enough to hold all of our frozen meat.

Boabs up the main street of Derby

Oz Trip - Day 112 to 113

Day 112 to 113 – 21/8/2012 to 22/8/2012 – Derby

The place that was going to do the repairs to the camper opened at 7:30am. By the time we packed up camp and distributed our food between the car fridge and the camp kitchen fridges in the van park it was 8:30am by the time that we got the camper to the repairers. After we had dropped the camper off, we went to see if we could check into the Spinifex Hotel. It was pretty much the only self contained accommodation that we could find in Derby. Luckily they were able to get us into our room pretty much straight away. It was to be our home away from home for the next two days.

The Spinifex Hotel accommodation

Oz Trip - Day 111

Day 111 – 20/8/2012 – Horizontal Falls Tour

We were up early for an 8:15am pick for a Horizontal Falls trip. On the way out to the airport one interesting fact that I learnt about Derby is that has the largest runway in the southern hemisphere. The runway is located at the Curtin Air Base and was built in case the space shuttle couldn't land at its home base in the northern hemisphere. It also contained a 20 bed underground fully functioning hospital which was activated every time the space shuttle was launched. With the shelving of the space shuttle program and the planned US military base at Darwin, the runway will still probably be used as the landing strip for the US military planes that are too large and heavy to land at Darwin and then they will transport the equipment back to Darwin via road.

Our Seaplane

Oz Trip - Day 100 to 103

Day 100 to 103 – 9/8/2012 to 12/8/2012 – Derby

Basically not much over the next couple of days. Catching up on jobs, blog posts, working out what we would need to take out of the camper because we will be leaving it behind for a few days and heading to Broome.

The CARP Resurfaces! (on the black and white sign)

Oz Trip - Day 99

Day 99 – 8/8/2012 – Derby

A late start to the day due to the last couple of big and stressful days. We spent the morning rearranging our bookings and itinerary to make use of our extended stay in Derby. The required parts for the camper were going to take nearly two weeks to get to Derby.

I also found a tyre place to order me a new tyre to replace one on the camper that had a cut in the sidewall. I only noticed this cut on the sidewall when the camper was up on the flatbed.

The cut in the side wall

Oz Trip - Day 98

Day 98 – 7/8/2012 – Derby, The way I didn't want to arrive!

The flatbed truck was meant to pick us up at 12pm. We were up early so that we could pack everything up just in case it turned up early. Pat, one of the drivers from the company that was going to tow us, turned up on his way through to Mitchell Falls, and told us that our truck will be arriving at 10:30am to pick us up.

After we packed up and limped back to the roadhouse, we saw Pat there taking the wheels off his truck as something had broken in his wheel assembly.

The flatbed turned up and proceeded to winch the camper onto it. You just can't describe that feeling in the bottom of your stomach seeing your pride and joy being winched up onto the back of the flatbed.

Getting towed out :-( Also note Pat fixing the wheel on his truck - having a smoke under two big tanks of AvGas!