SomewhereSouth.net

....and another week of Tazzy

Okay where did Murf ended last time... Ah with my digital camera failing. Well, that luckely solved itself after some sweaty hours and a second shop who was able to put them on disk. (sorry guys, forgot to take the disks this time so no new pictures) After we done al that stuff in Hobart we wanted to run as soon as possible from there. Not because it wasn't nice, but it was so crowded after al those days in nature.

So we drove off to our next free camping spot. Which was next to a big lake in the middle of nowhere. Like first big town was about 70Km away. But never the less we spended our night next to a German van (they shipped it over) with a German family. And a car full of Dutchies. Who ignored us very (not) friendly. The German man was a hobby machanic and checked our car up. Which was still leaking. He told us that it looked bad. And could break down any minute. But then again it could drive for another couple of days as well.

So the next day we chearfully went on and saw the Gordon dam. Drove an awfull lot because we had a long way to go. Only popped in in an animal shelter and hospital. Saw a lot of native animals. Ended up sleeping next to a powerstation. And had a toilet building with electricity! So that was very good for my mobile phone and rechargeble batteries. The next day we drove through the biggest national park. And did some nice walks in the rain. Drove through Queenstown and Zeehan. And found a sign that said no petrol for the next 167 Km. So glad we just tanked.

After a couple of Km's (50) We had to take a pond over the river. Which was fairly expensive. But even beter was that our car broke completely down in those few 100meters. So bad that we had to get a tow. But how do you phone in a area so remote that the next town is 2 hours driving. Next to that the town you are standing in has exactly one street and 2 inhabitants. Ow and a satelite phone. Which costed us a lot of money. But we had a tow... the next day. We were towed for 2.5 hours before we had a town with parts. Don't ask us what that tow costed. And we slept on the parking lot of the garage. To get it fixed the next day. Which costed again more money. Hopefully we can get it (most of it) back on the mainland, but that has to wait to Melbourne. This whole situation ment that our ferry back had to be postponed again. The phoneline was fairly busy because of a big storm that had a lot of fun in Melbourne/Sydney/Devonport. But after some sweaty hands we got through. And postponed to Monday.

After fixing the car we wanted to get some testdrinving. So at our 6 months anniversary we had to hang around to wait for our car but after that we simply drove a bit and had a good 5 course dinner at a chinese. And trying to find our free camping was not done because they just put down 'no camping' signs. So we just hid our van behind some bushes for the night. (that is pretty hard with a white van) But all good. The next day we went for a long long driving day. And including the long dirtroad we broke down up. 150 km winding dirtroad in the rain. Should be a good stress test for the car. Ended up as a stress test for Murf as well. Because on the last 200 meter of the dirtroad he lost control over the car. And smashed his but in a rock. :-S Unfortunately no duck tape to fix it. (long live the iron backstep who saved a lot) But a little bit of wonderwork with our swiss army knife did wonders. And the but of our van may not be that pretty anymore. It looks good enough. After an aftershock hug we just drove on. And had a fun laugh. That night we wanted to sleep in an National Park. But when we drove in we discovered that this was different than all the parks we already had seen. It was so touristic and crowded! (thanx to all the 1300 cyclists that visited that day) So we fast drove off and found ourselfs a new last spot in Tazzy in the middle of nowhere.

This morning we drove off to Devonport for our boat. Which leaves in about 5 hours. But we just dribble around in a city day. That should be it for this week.

Just gonna answer some more emails and you hear more next week.

Lots of love
Nicky

Ps The last 5 days were awfully chilly. Not to mention bloody cold!!! And a lot of rain as well.. But then again, it's something else than all that sun... ;-)

nicky | 07 Feb 2005 (Mon), 05:24 @ story