6th & 7th July, 2023 Dale’s place, Mackay, Qld

Thurs, 6^th

19.6 degrees, clear sky.

Dale headed off to work. We spent a few house ringing car wreckers throughout Qld trying to find a secondhand turbo. We ended up finding one at Jap Motors in Townsville and they were kind enough to get it straight onto the courier so it should arrive tomorrow.

Steve got to work pulling everything out ready for when the replacement arrives. All this work then when we get to Cairns he has to pull it all out again ready for the new engine. At least the new engine has a bigger turbo.

Nice to be back in the tropics again, max 33.4 degrees in the camper - had to put my fan on while I worked on my blog. Steve just got hot out in the sun under the bonnet - he loves it! At least it isn’t raining.

Lots of comments after I posted up the camper on the tilt tray! Lou said ‘all this talk about a heart transplant for the truck and the lungs have died!’ Shane & Doreen posted a comment and I replied we were looking forward to seeing them in Cairns. She replied they won’t get there as they had to head south again for more caravan repairs. Then I found out they were in Mackay so I said we are too so they drove around and we had great time chatting. Fancy that after all the times we have tried to meet up on the road we meet in Mackay. Dale came back from work and we chatted the afternoon away.

Showed Dale my blog using his internet on the TV - easier moving the cursor on a computer screen though. We revisited the Kimberley Cruise for him which was great for us to look at again too.

 

Fri 7^th

18 degrees this morning. Windows were open but no need for the big blanket now.

At last we received an email from Wholesale Automatics saying the transmission was on its way from Melbourne and will get to Cairns next week. No new yet from DCA about the motor - I hate not being able to ring them and having to rely just on emails. He had emailled on the 2^nd saying it was ready but as we weren’t there they were waiting - which was stupid as we said to send it to Dan’s workplace. I found a Facebook page of others doing the conversion and it was interesting or alarming in some, to read the comments. I hope we aren’t going to have any issues like some people have had.

Yeah, the turbo arrived at 1pm so Steve got to work. Dale offered moral support etc.

Fozzie rang after seeing the post so check we were ok. All connected and the engine started though there is still a lot of oil in the exhaust system that will have to burn out so we will be smelly for quite a while.

While we were having a drink Paul rang so they all had a good chat. The speaker on phones is a great thing.

Much cooler this afternoon. Another lovely evening chatting with Dale.