17.07.07 Day 3

ROXBY DOWNS TO ROXBY DOWNS!!

After a cold night we awoke at 7ish and were ready to leave by 10 for an appointment with Sharon at Pine Cres.

After hooking up the van and showing a large group of fellow travellers the ease of which the AVan is readied we left at 0945.Alarm bells. Gearbox was stuck in 2^nd gear and would not release. So we drove very slowly into town and made our appointment.

Ally and Sharron at Lin Andrews were very helpful and we made calls to RAA and NorthPoint Toyota who have an agency in Roxby.

Inspected the house at Pine Cres and were both pleasantly surprised to find it in very good condition.

Outside paint is very good and the inside is reasonable and not in any immediate need of attention. Could do with a coat on the walls in the main living area and ceiling where someone has pasted small stars on it! However as there is a single bloke in it at the moment and he is happy, probably do not need to do anything yet?

So back to the Prado. After talking to the RAA bloke who had not encountered this problem we drove to NorthPoint, very slowly. Lucky this did not happen yesterday when we pulled up for lunch south of Woomera at Range View.

Anyway after discussion with the chap there and a phone call to Darryl Carter in Adelaide, who in turn rang his mate at CMI, everyone came to same conclusion, NO IDEA!! The decision was made for them to pull the box out and send it to Adelaide for repairs. (Still under warranty praise God).This should go down tomorrow (Wed) and be back who knows when.

In the meantime we have arranged 5 days paid camp fees through RAA and 5 days car hire, which should be ready tomorrow. I tried to talk them into paying more than 5 days with the van as they would have put us into the motel for 5 as well. Sorry, one or the other.

The lads at Nth Point were very helpful and pulled the van back to the same site and we spent the afternoon setting up the annexe sitting in the sun (yes it was quite warm) and relating our tale of woe to all and sundry. Including those who had waved us goodbye earlier in the morning.

As it turned out those folk, two sisters and their husbands, one couple from Wallaroo (late of Bute) and the other from Somerton Park turned out to be related to the Pederick’s at Angle Vale and knew Bob Pederick ,Len and Margaret Roberts and Brenton Sharp. (Mum’ cousins).

Small world you say, it gets smaller! The chap in Camper Trailer next door used to live in Tooperang and knew a bloke by the name of Dolphin who was a shearer, “I think was his name Grant”!!! How about that, my dad!

So it turned out to be quite an eventful day. If we are here for a few days we may as well go and do some painting at Pine Cres but will make that decision tomorrow. Di to bed early as she had bad head for most of day. No wonder

Had lots of calls to Adelaide and back but the Optus line has been very bad today so it was hard to hear.