Yesterday was a pretty hard day for my poor car. First I did something really stupid and then something even more stupid happened. And so we are sitting in Cloncurry, just 120 km east of Mt. Isa, hoping for it to get fixed enough to get us to Townsville.

The really stupid thing I did was that I forgot to screw the cap on the engine again after putting oil into it in Elliot where we had spent the night. Originally we had planned to try to make it all the way to Tennants Creek, but it turned out that that was a bit too ambitious. So we slept in the car on a wee campsite (really just the backyard) behind the roadhouse (9.50 AUD for two). Elliot is a bit of a scary place - especially at night, but we were o.k.. Anyhow: I put oil into the engine in the morning and simply forgot to screw the top back on. Bummer. Fortunately I had put the cap on top of the fan - and surprisingly enough it hadn't fallen off!

Greasy oil all over

We didn't realize that the cap was off until about 800 km later when we made a stop at the first roadhouse in Queensland. Yes, I'm in Queensland now (8 hours ahead of Germany). And the only reason we looked under the bonnet was because we could see loads of water running out of the it! So I had driven with an open engine for 800 kms! And believe me, the engine compartment doesn't look prettier because of it.

Drop...drop...flush

There was no water left in the cooler when we looked, since there is a hole in the radiator-hose (thus the water running out). Unfortunately the town where we discovered this didn't look like the sort of place where we could get it fixed, so we decided to make a run for Mt. Isa, a pretty big town for Australia (22.000 people). It had gotten dark by that time and I was realy scared that we might un into some kangaroos (there was a lot of roadkill) but there was not much else we could do.

If it rains it pours

While going there I actually remarked on how lucky we were to get there on a weekday and not a weekend and how much that would suck. Guess what: Today is a public holiday in Mt. Isa! Argh! So we decided to go to the next little place, Cloncurry, that is only 120 km away from Mt. Isa and try to get the car fixed there. We had to refill water once on the way, since the leak seems to be getting worse. But we got there and the engine temperature is alright as well. Unfortunately all garages in Cloncurry are busy for the next week or two! But I managed to convince one of them to fit a new radiator-hose to the car whenever they can squeeze us in. At least we might be able to get to Townsville, the next major town towards the east, that way. They told us that in addition to the radiator-hose there was also a problem with the water pump. But it would take at least three or four days to order the parts from Townsville and I just hope that the pump will last until Townsville. I suppose I could try to fit the radiator hose myself, but never having done that I think I'd rather wait for the garage to get it done for me. Unfortunately we have so far waited for nearly three hours! But I suppose I shouldn't complain. After all, they are doing us a favor by doing it at all. I just wish we could make it to Townsville today, but that seems to be less and less likely.

The vast and empty outback

Technical problems aside the drive from Darwin to here was quite nice: The landscape between Darwin and Tennant Creek wasn't much to look at (i.e. it was the same, dry NT-landscape you have pretty much everywhere), but it got pretty nice between Tennant Creek and Cloncurry: On some parts you could only see featureless grasslands until the horizon! And while this is quite boring, it was also cool in a way - it's just so incredibly empty, it blows your mind! Considering that roadhouses are 260 km apart out there I think we were pretty lucky not to run into technical problems out there! Then, between Mt. Isa and Cloncurry, the road runs through quite a lot of pretty and sometimes quite steep hills. After having seen nothing but flat, flat landscape for the last two weeks this was a really nice change. Though I did worry about whether going up and down those hills might make the leak worse that it was. When we got to Cloncurry the water was really squirting out and not merely dripping like before. So we can only sit here and hope for it to get fixed asap.

In Mt. Isa we stayed at Travellers Haven (20 AUD/dorm), which is a bit dodgy but has quite nice beds and a well equipped kitchen. And I wasn't really impressed with Mt. Isa either. It's basically a big and industrial mining town (copper, silver, zinc) and not much to look at.