Trials and Tribulations - testing our commitment

Max and Theo fishing...

We had planned to start our journey on Thursday, 8/1/15 and after a few delays we actually left on Monday, 12/1/15. We spent our first night at Nambucca, camped right on the Nambucca River.

Max had a great time fishing off the bank all afternoon. 

"camping" by the side of the road

Day 2 began well but proved to be a bit of a disaster with 2 major incidents occurring. Just past Kempsey a tyre on the camper gave up, the tread separated from the tyre. We were lucky because it only punched a small hole in the camper floor (under the bed) and it seems our electric kettle took the brunt of the force. We did have some shade by the side of the road though....

Kettle saved a lot of damage

Mick changed the tyre and we were able to move on.

Camper floor

To make up some of the lost time we decided to drive for a bit longer that day. Unfortunately for us that was a fateful decision. Just outside Hexton (near Newcastle) the engine belt broke a pulley and the belt came off, making the car immobile and us stuck!!

Luckily, I had just upgraded my RACQ membership from Ultra to Ultimate in preparation for our trip. RACQ organised for NRMA to come out and assess the car and then have us towed into Newcastle. RACQ also paid for a taxi to come and pick up myself and the kids and take us to a hotel they had organised.

Mick tried to fix the car himself we were unable to get NRMA to look at the car. We ended up booking the car into a 4x4 specialist but not until the following Tuesday (21/1/15).