Rick and Rae's Travels: Sun, 11th to Tues, 13th September

We had another lovely cool night's sleep and woke to sunny morning. We packed up and drove the 65kms down the mountain, via Kuranda to Cairns. Rick had to take it easy down the mountain as we only had brakes on one side of the van. As it happened, the road was very winding but the downhill run wasn't too steep, so we didn't have any problems. We stopped part way down the mountain to have a look at the view over Cairns.

We checked into the Top Tourist Park in Cairns before driving into town to Officeworks. I wanted to investigate a 'scanner-mouse' that I had seen advertised. After purchasing the mouse we went to a DFO looking for some shorts for Rick. We returned to the van and I caught up on washing while Rick prepared a lovely roast lamb dinner for us. I also experimented with the scanner-mouse and found it to be a great little gadget.

While cooking, Rick was talking to our neighbour who told him about a mobile mechanic in the area. Rick rang the mechanic and organised for him to come and look at the van brakes at about midday the following day.

On Monday we cleaned and caught up on jobs to fill in time until the mechanic arrived. He was late, arriving at around 1:30pm and then spent about 3 hours looking at the brakes. He managed to get one wheel working on that side of the van, but quit without being able to fix both. At least we now had three wheels working but we were over $300 lighter in the pocket!

We rose early on Tuesday and checked out of the park. We had an appointment to drive into town and have the washing machine looked at under warranty. When the guy looked at it, out suspicions were confirmed ... it needed the suspension replaced. Swift in Melbourne would send a new kit for and we would be contacted when it arrived. In the meantime we would travel a bit further south (but not too far) so that we could return to Cairns when needed for the repairs.

We left Cairns and drove about 40kms south to a free camp at a pretty little place called Babinda. We were glad we didn't travel very far as once again it was very windy. Rick spoke about our brakes to a fellow traveller who advertised on his vehicle that he built trailers and axles, etc. in Brisbane. He seemed to know what our problem would be and organised for some parts to come up to him from Brisbane when his grandchildren came to visit a day or two later. When we explained that we were heading to Mission Beach for a week and wouldn't be in Babinda, he said he would be happy to go down to Mission Beach and fix our brakes on site for us. He said it would give them something to do with the kids while they were with them.