Starting from when we were back on the Gold Coast is where it all began to go wrong. We were casually driving along the main sea front road, loving life, when we suddenly heard a loud bang and saw everybody's heads turn instantly to look at our van. Bearing in mine this was a Saturday afternoon on one of the busiest streets... A bit like driving along Blackpool front on a summers day but nicer. Embarrassing doesn't quite cut it. We pulled over straight away and realised that the radiator had blown. We literally didn't know what to do. A second later one of the workmen from the building site next to us came out to see what had happened. One of the main things we have come to realise out here is how many genuinely nice people there are who are honestly just want to help. Straight away he was on the floor looking under the van, checking the pipes, seeing where it had blown and explaining it to us just exactly what happened and what we need to do. We managed to slowly drive it to a campsite 10 minutes down the road. It was double what we had been paying nightly but it was our only option.
From there Sean managed to get the cracked radiator out himself and rang around wreckers to find a second hand one to replace it. Thinking about it now has us in stitches... With no van Sean decided to rent a bike and cycled the 40minutes to pick up a new one... Not only that but because it was so big he had to put it in a cool bag that he wore as a backpack to carry it back in, with string tied around it. Definitely wasn't funny at the time but very funny now. Luckily on the way back one of the guys from the wreckers found Sean and gave him a lift half of the way. Another example of how helpful people are.
He managed to get it fitted, and because things weren't going bad enough already, it then had a leak. We rang the wreckers back and after explaining the situation they agreed to have a courier deliver a replacement to us. Once again Sean took the radiator back out and fitted the new one. To say he has never done any mechanical/engineering things before, within a month he had fitted a new battery, new carburettor and 2 new radiators, so he's basically had a crash course and done very well :)
We took it to a mechanic to have another look over but with all of the problems we decided to sell. We couldn't afford to put any more money into Bruce and we'd pretty much lost faith in him at this point.
The Gold Coast
Taking a day from the stresses of the van to play mini golf :)
After having it up for sale for a few days without hearing anything we decided selling it in Brisbane would be better so we ventured back up the coast. Very kindly Seans mate, Stuart, took us back in and it took about another week but we managed to find a buyer. We were contemplating renting a campervan to avoid any more stress, when another option suddenly came about. Stuart and his fiancé Carly said we could buy their 4x4 Mitsubishi Challenger. They'd always said how reliable and good a car it was so it was kind of perfect. It took afew days for us to re purchase all of our camping gear, and find a roof top tent but we were finally ready to set off...
...Again.
We're really happy with the new car. It's not quite as homely or easy as the campervan but it's good and will get us around Australia comfortably. It also means we can venture further on unsealed roads and do some 4 wheel driving... maybe.
The journey started with a stop off at a place called Uki to pick up the tent. At that very moment it began to rain, heavy, and didn't stop. That night was one of the worst storms we had experienced in a long time and it came on our first night in the tent. Within seconds of getting out of the car to try set it up Sean was soaked through.
The next day we got up early, packed up the tent between downpours, and set off for Byron Bay. Over the next few days we'd had more rain than we'd probably had throughout the entire time of being in Australia.
We had both really been looking forward to going to Byron Bay ever since people started telling us to go way back when we were in Asia. It's one of the go-to places for backpackers, sun, sea, sand and surf, but unfortunately the rain put a bit of a dampener on it. Going to the beach in the rain isn't quite the same as going when it's nice and sunny. We spent a couple of nights there though, did a walk up to the lighthouse and strolled around the shops. Who knows maybe we'll get a second chance if we make it back around before we leave.
Unfortunately as you can see we didnt take many photos as the weather just wasn't great.
From there we have come to Coffs Harbour for a night. Another sea side town further down the coast. On a map it still looks like we've barely gone anywhere, but we're about 4 and a half hours south of Brisbane now.
It's been a bit of a rough start to the journey (part 2) but hopefully from now on in, it will be smooth going.
:)
P.S. The rain finally stopped today.
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