‘Bearing’ the hardships of life on the road

On the afternoon of our arrival at Lake Leake I decided to do some washing. Buckets arranged, and with plunger in hand, I sat down on the little stool to start agitating the water. I was sitting behind the car, and as I looked up noticed what looked like oil in the right rear wheel rim. The man of the house, car and van had been pottering around so I thought (hoped!) maybe he had spilled some water on the rim, and cautiously asked ‘Is that oil in that wheel rim?’

I plunged and sloshed away as he inspected. ‘Hhhmmmm.’ An unfortunate affirmative. ‘Wheel bearing?’ I ventured. ‘Looks like it’. Both our minds had immediately gone back to Jugiong and our unscheduled week of repairs that had included the other wheel bearing. So off he went up to the caretaker to get the number of a mechanic.

The first guy he called (Tony) was booked up for over a week, but he gave Dazz another number. Gordon said he’d have time to look at it, so ordered the part. He told us to call back at 1pm the next day to see if it had arrived on the courier. It had, so we prepared for the 30km drive back to Campbell Town.

How does one prepare for a trip to the mechanic that’s greater than walking distance from your place of abode? By packing an overnight bag, of course. Yes, he had the part, but just about every time we get something fixed the wrong part is ordered or sent, or there is some other unexpected delay. So, when you expect the unexpected you pack an overnight bag.

‘The wheel shouldn’t fall off, should it?’ ‘Nahhh, should be right. Just take it easy though.’ So we did.

Arriving at Gordon’s, we found a big shed, lots of cars in various states of disrepair and more engine bits and scrap metal than would fit inside the big shed. We could only presume that his fleecy slippers had steel caps…

He shifted the vehicle he was working on and put ours up on the hoist and we set off for a walking tour of Campbell Town for a few hours. The walking tour took less than an hour, so we settled for a lie down on the grass under a big, shady birch tree instead. As we wandered back to Gordon’s Dazz tried to bet me $50 that the wrong part had been sent. I was too smart to take that kind of a bet, which was lucky because as we walked up to the shed we could see the wheel was still off.

‘How’s it going?’ ‘Good… Oh… and bad.’ ‘Really?’ There was no surprise in Dazz’s voice.

‘They sent the wrong part’ was the bad news, but the good news was that the right one was on the courier and should be here in an hour. He’d left the old bearing in though, so if there was a problem we’d still be able to get back to camp.

Meanwhile, he’d changed the oil and greased the drive train as Dazz had requested. (It was lucky that Dazz didn’t leave Gordon’s with the old oil filter inserted up his rear end, as that was what Gordon reckoned should be done with the filter to whomever had put the last one on. It was on so tight that he crushed it getting it off! Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective) Gordon had forgotten all about the oil filter by the time we eventually left at 8:15pm…)

By the time the courier arrived so had Tony (the other mechanic). He’d finished for the day, and being mates with Gordon, had popped around to say g’day. He sat and chatted as Gordon inspected each part of the new bearing kit to ensure that it would all fit. Once satisfied he started pulling out the old one. From the other side of the shed we couldn’t see exactly what was happening during the removal process, but it did involve a lot of banging of metal on metal and metal on concrete, some grinding, a blow torch, and a good deal of swearing. All the while we were happily chatting about how blog worthy this whole event was.

Tony had become very much involved in the job that he was too busy for, but couldn’t just stand by and watch his mate struggle. The whole process probably took about an hour, and Gordon didn’t even set his safety slippers on fire! Tony showed us the old bearing which seemed like it had probably split a long time ago and part of it was spinning inside the housing and was quite worn (maybe this was the source of the sporadic mystery noise that no one has been able to identify and fix!) They both had a smoke while the axle and associated bits were put in an old tin of oil to cool down – the oil bubbled for quite a long time – and then began the reassembly process.

So, with light at the end of the tunnel, and Gordon trying to put the disk brake back in, Tony wandered over to give him a hand and noticed that the backing plate was on the wrong side. On most other cars it’s a simple matter of undoing a bolt and spinning it around, but not the Jackaroo (and we thought it was only Peugeots that were engineered by helper monkeys!). Thus ensued another hour of drilling and bashing and grinding and swearing as they re-engineered the thing to allow it to spin, because that was the quicker and safer option than trying to get the bearing out again without damaging it…

Finally, six hours and $250 later we were on our way. We thought that was a bargain for all that work and afternoon of entertainment for us, not to mention the reading pleasure of all of our blog followers. Thanks Gordon and Tony!

Home!

Yes, Tassie is home at the moment. You know how the old saying goes, ‘Home is where your caravan is.’ It was so nice to sleep in our own bed after a month of living out of backpacks.

Of course, life wouldn’t be quite right for us if there weren’t a few dramas. The car battery was dead as a doornail (in the rush of leaving no one thought to disconnect it!) and needed a special heavy duty charger to revive it. Our friend’s dad was able to help us out with that one. The heat wave a few weeks ago also took its toll on a few things – the chocolate supply is a little worse for wear, and the very attractive plastic flap siliconed above the back window of the van to stop water leaking in had half fallen off. At least Dazz has his ‘back of car shed’ at his disposal to fix it.

We had intended to go to Lake Leake after leaving our friends’ place, just south of Launceston, but only made it as far as Evandale (yes, that was about 10kms!). We’ve fitted right back in to changing plans at the last minute and going slow. We had a nice walk around the town, enjoying the old buildings, gardens and even a few plums that were hanging over a fence!

We did make it all the way to Lake Leake today, and will probably stay here a while – powered sites for only $10/night, with kayaking and trout fishing less than 100m from our front door. I’d better brush up on the fish whistle…

Real and Reverse Sarcasm

It all began about four weeks ago as we were driving from Penguin to Stanley, caravan in tow. The first traffic light we came across in Burnie was red. Darren, along with all members of his family, has an almost pathological hatred of red lights, along with an uncanny ability to turn just about any light red as they approach. It’s known as the family curse. With his niece and nephew in the car too, I knew it would be a very tedious trip, full of moaning and groaning at each red light. Something had to be done.

‘Reverse psychology’, I announced. ‘I love red lights.’ ‘A great chance to rest and relax.’ And so we started cheering for red lights. I think we only had one other red light during the entire trip (but a lot of groaning and moaning each time we went through a green one!)

Last week we stayed with Darren’s sister in Brisbane (said niece and nephew’s parents). Amongst other interesting reports (we apparently made the kids go to bed at 6:30 or 7:30pm – they hadn’t changed their clocks from Qld time, and since it was still daylight at 9:30pm in Tassie they were really confused about what time it actually was!) we heard about ‘reverse sarcasm’. The name stuck, and our little trick for beating red lights has since been passed on to the rest of the extended family.

We ate outside most evenings while in Brisbane, serving ourselves from a bench beside the BBQ. One evening Miss 13 said in the sweetest of voices, ‘We’re lining up oldest to youngest, so you should go to the back of the line Aunty Barb.’ Everyone went ‘ooohh’ thinking Miss 13 was so smooth. Aunty Barb, taken aback by the compliment, responded ‘Was that reverse sarcasm?’
As cool and quick as anything, and with the best of intentions, Miss 13 countered, ‘No, that was REAL sarcasm’.

The whole place erupted in laughter, and we’ve been laughing ever since. Miss 13 will go down in family history as the originator of a family saying that will, no doubt, last a long, long time, causing great hilarity and jocularity whenever it is recounted.

Up until that time a remark I made earlier in the week about something being generic (instead of genetic) had been popping up regularly in conversation. Intentionally playing with words, or picking up on other’s misuse of words, is definitely 'generic' in this family!!

Sad News

Darren's dad passed away last Thursday (15th January). He had battled pneumonia around Christmas time and had also lost a lot of weight over the past few months. The sadness is mixed with relief, though, as he is now free from his difficult struggle with dementia.

We flew back to Brisbane on Friday and are preparing for the funeral on Thursday 22nd at 11:30am. We are enjoying this unexpected time with family, in spite of the circumstances, and are also looking forward to seeing some of the Aunties and Uncles. While up here we will also spend some time in Toowoomba, and do our next lot of marking up there during the first two weeks of February.

When we return to Tassie we’ll have about six weeks to ‘finish off’ the last few things on the list. I know that for most people six weeks is more than enough time to see all of Tassie, but not for us! The big things still on the list are Maria Island, Meander Falls, a few walks around Launceston, Ben Lomond and Walls of Jerusalem. It’s looking like a busy few weeks…

Happy Christmas and New Year!

We had a great Christmas with the family, and then a busy but fun time when Dazz’s niece and nephew flew down for the week. We’re marking for a few days now (I’m just taking a break to do photos!!) before our last few days with the family. Here’s a selection of photos from the last few weeks (in no particular order - Christmas, the beach at Penguin, Creative Paper, Wings Wildlife World,

Mole Creek Caves, Devils Gullet Lookout, The Honey Farm, Tasmazia, Cradle Mountain).

Tahune Airwalk

The Airwalk and Swinging Bridges were amazing. The day we went was Ellie’s birthday and she pronounced it 'my best birthday in my entire life' (she is now 6). The swinging bridge was her favourite, but she also braved the cantilever by herself a second time for Uncle Dazza and Pa to take photos.

Mt Wellington

We gave Anita & Paul a taste of bushwalking in Tassie by doing the Organ Pipe walk on Mt Wellington. Mum & Dad had taken the kids for the day, but we both happened to be at the top of the mountain at the same time!

Port Arthur

We collected some mussels and oysters off the rocks at Bruny Island the day we left, and they proved to be a big hit with everyone after a hard day of sightseeing on the Tasman Peninsula the following day.









We did the historic site in our wet weather gear. Nathan’s favourite thing was the leg irons, and Ellie liked the flowers and the two-headed stuffed Tassie Devil at the gift shop (she thought we were

at a zoo!).

Bruny Island

We had enough fine weather for a couple of walks on Bruny Island, and enjoyed the coastal walks and variety of wildlife and wildflowers. Here are some highlights…

Catching Up

Since our walk up to Hartz Peak we’ve had more rain and cloud and wind… funny how one beautiful day every couple of weeks seems normal now. Mum & Dad met us at Mt Field last Monday and we’ve enjoyed seeing them. We went for a drive up to Lake Dobson (in the Mt Field NP) one afternoon and by the time we got to the top it was snowing! We went for a walk around the Lake and it was very pretty. The boys hadn’t brought their cameras (because it was wet), but when we got back to the car the rain/snow had stopped so decided to go back and take photos. While they were gone there was another blustery snow storm.





A few days after that we drove out to Lake Pedder and the Gordon Dam. It was overcast for most of the day, but there was a sunny spot in the middle of the day that the photographers made the most of.










We’re at Bruny Island at now, but no walks or photos yet. Dazz, Mum & Dad have gone out on the boat tour today, but I’ve had too many bad, sea-sick boat experiences to even want to go. Hopefully they bring back some good photos.