Nice drive through the sugar cane fields all the way up to Cardwell. Allie even commented "I could live here !"
Those words went on to haunt us ... only two mins past Cardwell Team TickB4Kick (Allie and Darren) had engine troubles.
A slight ticking, then a puff of smoke.
Fortunately we had RACQ Ultimate, which got us quickly towed (with our Caravan) back into Cardwell to the RACQ Mechanics shop.
A quick look and it seems the fuel injector has punched a hole through a cylinder, as the car only runs on three cylinders and we have no compression.
Estimates at this point was 3-4 weeks and $12,000. We were devastated. This trip had meant so much to us. We had spent $5,000 prepping/servicing the car - even having the injectors checked twice.
The RACQ Ultimate allowed us to be taken to the campground, and pays for a site for a few weeks and also allows for 6 days of car hire.
We have a good camp site, we have all our food and are very comfortable.
Others seem much more packed in here than us - so there is a positive - small - but a positive.
We await the mechanic finding us a replacement engine.
To be fair we both shed a few tears, this was our dream - and it was a solid blow to us. We always knew something would occur one day - just not 3 days in !
We had a nice dinner out - bugger it - why the hell not after a shit day like that.
The rest of the Teams have moved onward to Cooktown
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