July 21

Well, good news, of a sort. The local Toyota people diagnosed the problem with the Prado as a fault in the torque converter but that it should be OK to drive for about 2000 km. We basically had three options: 1) stay here and get it fixed which would involve the locals pulling out the gearbox and sending the faulty part to Rockhampton for repairs and then put everything back together – could take a week ??? 2) drive to Rockhampton, get it fixed then continue our journey which would have meant cancelling and rebooking van sites; 3) continue on to Mt Isa and get it fixed there. Enquiries revealed that the expertise existed in Mt Isa to do the work but a delay could be caused by waiting for the parts to arrive from Syd, Bris, Melb or Townsville!!! We opted for the Mt Isa solution as we can continue our journey pretty much as scheduled. The only problem is that we’ll have to miss Adels Grove and Lawn Hill NP – which is really disappointing – it also means spending an extra four days in Mt Isa. Going to Adels Grove would stretch the 2000 km distance but then we’d still probably have to spend extra days in Mt Isa as well. The temps in Mt Isa have been high 20s-low 30s so maybe we can get a sun-tan. Of course the big unknown is still the cost of the repairs. Please pass the hat around!

We woke this morning to light rain – just enough to settle the dust and soften the insects on the van and car. As a result we had a big clean up. Mum did two loads of washing last night and today cleaned out the inside of the van. We also did the outside of the van and the Prado in and out. Everything is shiny and clean, at least until the next lot of rain or dust!

The train, Outback Spirit, from Longreach to Brisbane stopped here this afternoon so we made our way to the railway station to have a look. It usually has 16 cars and it had to stop twice at the platform – firstly to load on the luggage and secondly to load on the passengers. I wonder if trains have torque converters??? Maybe we should travel by train in future.

Off to Barcaldine tomorrow – where the Labor Party had its origins.