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Do I look worried? I am! 4 days in and already mechanical problems!!
This post is from Steve & Jen’s 16 month Big Lap from 2005 to 2007 – we’re reposting it camp by camp in the lead up to the release of their documentary | Learn more
Day 5 to 7 – Echuca, Victoria
Drive to Echuca
Woke to the prospect of packing up camp and moving to Echuca today. My plan was to be up by 7 and away by 9 but didn’t work out that way. Got up by about 7:30 and had breakie and packed lunch for the trip. Neville came over to give us a hand to pack but it still took several hours and we got away around midday.
Plenty of work to do on refining our kit to make for speedy getaways but we’ll get there.
On the way to Echuca the car overheated pretty constantly which was a real worry. Plan to get it looked at in Echuca.
I spoke to Adam from Yamaha on the way and arranged to pick up our generator from Highside in Echuca.
Met Ray Milthorpe at a servo along the way. He owns a trucking company with about 20 semi’s and is looking forward to retiring to travel Australia with his wife. I had a moan about the price of fuel ($1.36pl at that stage) which Ray soon put in to perspective when he let me know his monthly fuel bill. Let’s just say you could probably buy a nice house for the same amount.
Found a powered site at the Horseshoe Lagoon Caravan Park which was quite nice. Park mostly full of holiday units (permanents) with a few powered sites. Murray river frontage with boat ramp and boat sheds. Pretty cool holiday spot.
Managed to get camper setup before dark (just) and had an early night.
Diagnosis Day
Running around day today. Left the girls at camp while I headed into Echuca to pick up Yamaha generator, find out what’s wrong with the cruiser and get some internet access to check email.
Saw Kyle at Echuca Toyota who was adamant that the overheating problem was being caused by a blown head gasket or cracked head and quoted $1500 – $4000 for repair depending on the extent of the problem. No facility to weld cracked heads in Echuca so would require a new one if old one cracked.
Ouch. This is serious money so I rang Shane at Camberwell Service Centre in Melbourne who said may not be the head and if it were he would be able to fix it cheaper.
After much soul searching, we decided to head back to Melbourne on Sunday 25th (2 days away) and get Shane to look at it.
Managed to find internet cafe in ABC shop so got emails up to date.
Had chicken ribs and veggies for dinner – another quiet night (we must be getting old).
Grand Final at the RSL
One of the best days of the year – AFL Grand Final Day.
You have to love the RSL clubs . . . a quick call to the club and they sent a van to pick us up and take us to the club for the day. Had a nice lunch then watched Sydney beat West Coast by 3 points on the big screen.
A very enjoyable afternoon but not such a great night. Sara had a few too many pieces of chocolate at the club and had a really bad night followed by a very cranky couple of days – no more chocolate binges for her.
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