Mataranka to Katherine

As soon as i was up Monday i was on the phone toToyota. David listened then just just said “bring it in as soon as you get here”.

The 120km were nerve racking. Every bump or gear change made me think here we go again. Turns out i was ok under load but at idle or low revs you could swear she was going to stall.

Made it to Katherine by myself which was nice to arrive at he park and set up and not have been on the side of the road.

Toyota was also about 2 minutes away which was fortuitous! Arrived and Monique was very helpful, got the paperwork done and said she thought they would look at it that day. Great news! She rang later when we were in the pool to say it was the ignition coil on cylinder 3 and she had ordered the part from Darwin. She then followed up with ” it may make it tomorrow but possibly the day after”. Could be worse i said and she responded with they have about 4 cards in at any given time for rebuilds due to contaminated fuel. That could get expensive!

Next morning i rang up and good news, the coil was in! We will have done by this arvo. After being pestered by Kate for a time, i rang back and she told me to ring back just before her lunch at one and she would have a time as i explained we wanted to see the Cutta Cutta caves.

12.50 on the nose i ring and am greeted with, see you in 20 minutes! Yey! As we were leaving a grey nomad was walking past to the dunnies, heard the conversation and said they were waiting 3 months for a new front diff as they had had the car serviced in Darwin and the mechanic forgot to put the sump bolt back in and whammo dead car. The diff has to come from Japan! $470 and 24 hours i consider myself lucky.

Toyota told us when we picked the car of another older couple who broke down in Alice Springs and it took 8 weeks to get the parts and fix. Then they got to Katherine and another thing broke and another 8 weeks for parts and to be fixed.

Anyway the run down to the caves was easy, and on the way back we sat on 145 no hassles and nice fuel economy.

Fiona doesn’t want this on the blog but she is having her “monthly” rant and nab is the brunt of it as the banking app wouldn’t let her do something. I heard F words, S words and maybe a C word – for those that listen to the Highway Patrol on MMM it is Grumpy Fi not Grumpy Jules!!