August 4 Mt Isa

Not a lot to report for today – bit of a disaster actually!

We got to the Toyota place at 8.30 am wanting to talk to someone about the repairs and how long they might take. The girl on the service desk went to find someone and came back with the question, “Is it an automatic?” “Yes!” Off she went and came back to say, “We don’t do automatics, you have to take it to Mt Isa Automatics.” Allan’s blood pressure reached boiling point and asked to speak to someone in charge – out came a guy who repeated the line. I explained what had happened in Emerald, that I had contacted them myself to confirm they could do the work and his only response was that there must have been some mis-communication between the Service Desk people who were not technically qualified and therefore couldn’t have given the correct information. The apology was really only half-hearted, in fact I didn’t really regard it as an apology at all – he gave the impression the problem was more of an inconvenience to them and apart from directing us to Mt Isa Automatics, was of little use at all. To rub salt into the wound they couldn’t even find our car key and it took them about 10 – 15 minutes before it was located in someone’s pocket.

The mechanic at Mt Isa Automatics was excellent. He said they couldn’t really do anything until the end of the week or early next week due to work they already had in hand – fair enough. He did however take time to check out the noise, checked the transmission oil level, took it for a test drive and even rang someone he knew in Townsville to ask their opinion. When I asked what he would do if it was his vehicle, he said he’d keep driving it until he noticed a problem in the way the transmission was functioning. Apart from the noise, he couldn’t find anything wrong with it.

So, our big dilemma is, do we take his advice or not? If we do I suppose it becomes a calculated risk. My only concern is that we are heading into some more isolated country once we leave here with about 2000 km until we would reach Cairns. Leaving here and going to Townsville is about 1000 km but we are heading towards and through more populated areas. Some serious thinking to do!!!!

I rang the guy at NRMA and told him the story and that we wouldn’t be accessing our Premium Care at this stage. His advice was to call them straight away if there was a problem and they would organise towing or whatever.

We did spend some time shopping – bought some mats to go down outside the door of the van (keeping the van floor clean is a nightmare – everything gets walked in – grass, gravel, small stones, dust); bought some books; had all our prescriptions made up and bought a new towing mirror.

Mum had another swim today (bit over 30 laps) and declared the water isn’t getting any warmer. The forecast for today was 30^o but there’s supposed to be a change on the way with temps dropping to the mid-twenties!! Will have to get out the heater!

Tomorrow we’re booked in for a tour of the Hard Times Mine – apparently we have to get dressed up and go underground etc. Should be fun.