We didn't drive at night, lesson thoroughly learnt. Although, looking for a spot to camp meant it was getting to 'roo'o'clock. We drove through Tambo, and past Alpha, Wikicamps led us to Drummond look out point; there was already a caravan in the spot, and not wanting to drive on further we hit the 4wd track. Putting our cars skills to use we went down the track, passed those parked on the track further down the path, we had no choice but to go right and ended up at a perfect little spot in the mountains. We set up the tent and cooked dinner. With Phil being a meat lover we had breaded steak he got from the butchers in a town earlier that day, not to mention bacon for breakfast; oh the magical benefits of travelling with someone who loves meat.
The next morning we decided to have a lazy one. Phil cooked us a beautiful breakfast and I casually got dressed. Slowly savouring breakfast in the middle of the mountains with nobody around but the views, and the sound of wildlife, and a truck... a truck?! What the... "Phil, I can hear a truck", "don't be daft" he says. Starting to hear it louder and louder I am beginning to panic, if a truck is coming towards us it would mow the car down and us along with it. Oh no, oh no, we're not even close to getting it slightly packed up. Phil carries on casually eating breakfast... I look around... A TRUCK! Coming straight towards us. Aaaaarrrrhhhhhhh. Still casually eating his breakfast, Phil doesn't even look around. By now I'm on my feet with a plate in my hand wondering what to pack first, and why the heck Phil is still sat eating. Then, as the truck got close he turned off to the right... uhm, what?! The truck with a tractor on the back has gone where exactly?
Panic over. Turns out the truck was using the track, not the dried up river bed we were on, for getting to the rail way tracks that were in need of repair. The heavily bearded driver went past 4 different times, each time, after the first, we exchanged waves and Phil hoped he didn't drive past mid-change. Once we were all packed up it was once again time to get back on the road. My turn to wave at the people and keep a track of who is waving, I'll try and get a graph sorted once we've had a check of the tally chart.
Now I knew we weren't going to get mowed down by a truck it was time to pack up and drive on. Finding somewhere to camp tonight was a little tricky, the only place we could find was near croc infested waters... well, we didn't see any, but the sign said! Crocs! So, instead of camping near the water and all the caravans we've moved in to the trees so there was a suitable place to pee. I started cooking and Phil set up the tent, he disappeared for a call of nature when this deep, concerned voice pipes up, "Beeeccccccccaaaaaa... cows!", so I look up to see a herd of about 50 cows wandering around and past the car. A bull circling around. A cow 1 metre away from us wondering if there is enough tea for everyone? Well. Shit. We quickly packed up and I shoved the almost cooked dinner in the one pot and we drove somewhere in between the crocs and the cows. We ate dinner and went to bed.
Woke up the next day desperate for the usual morning piddle so we packed up as quickly as we could and headed to a little area with caravans and a toilet/shower block. I passed on the shower as the cubicle door wouldn't have covered much. We decided since we were making good progress we'd have an easy day. Casually had breakfast, chatted to an old guy, got the tent out to air off the condensation. Thinking about packing everything up Phil got in the tent to stick the duvet back in, I moved from underneath to open the boot, when within seconds the whole 60kg tent fell off the roof of the car, with Phil in it. I have never been stunned in to silence before but I couldn't see him and he just fell 6ft and had 60kg fold up on him, I was horrified. Managing to get a response from Phil I pulled the tent away from the car and he tried to get out. Phil standing, with a sore foot that was squashed under the ladder, a sore shin that hit the edge of the tent when it impacted with the floor and an injured shoulder as a result of the fault. I won't go in to too much detail as this is an ongoing problem and has not been resolved with the company responsible. The long and short of it is the fact that, despite questioning it, we were given the wrong feet for the roof bars which held on the tent. It wasn't for lack of checking and tightening that happened, the pure and simple of it was the wrong part. There was damage to the car, a broken, unusable tent, damage to the Phil and a distressed Becca.
Once people realised there was a problem they came over to help. With Phil unable to do anything, there was myself, two old men and maybe another man... could have been a woman, I'm not actually sure... trying to put the tent back on. Once we tightened the feet of the roof bars we then realised if the tent was lifted the whole thing moved. How the hell are we going to get to Cairns, 750km away, without this falling off? Luckily we had straps and ties but we couldn't get the bars of the tent to move back in so it hung over the edge of the car. With it strapped on as best as we could manage it was a non-stop drive to Cairns.
I dread to think of what could have happened, I think, given the circumstances, we are quite luckily. What if we were sleeping in it in the middle of the night? What if it came off at 110km/h and hit a car travelling behind us? (and Australian's do love to tailgate). What if Phil landed differently? That thought made me almost puke. On the way to Cairn's we realised we didn't have anywhere to sleep tonight and had to get a motel - money we hadn't anticipated. We also couldn't well cook in the motel car park and we hadn't eaten since breakfast, so had to find somewhere to eat, luckily, the place we found to eat let us order, even if it was 20:59 and service ends at 21:00. Exhausted and emotionally drained after the days events and driving over 750km in one hit, we went to bed, we would have to deal with this all tomorrow.
Panic over. Turns out the truck was using the track, not the dried up river bed we were on, for getting to the rail way tracks that were in need of repair. The heavily bearded driver went past 4 different times, each time, after the first, we exchanged waves and Phil hoped he didn't drive past mid-change. Once we were all packed up it was once again time to get back on the road. My turn to wave at the people and keep a track of who is waving, I'll try and get a graph sorted once we've had a check of the tally chart.
Now I knew we weren't going to get mowed down by a truck it was time to pack up and drive on. Finding somewhere to camp tonight was a little tricky, the only place we could find was near croc infested waters... well, we didn't see any, but the sign said! Crocs! So, instead of camping near the water and all the caravans we've moved in to the trees so there was a suitable place to pee. I started cooking and Phil set up the tent, he disappeared for a call of nature when this deep, concerned voice pipes up, "Beeeccccccccaaaaaa... cows!", so I look up to see a herd of about 50 cows wandering around and past the car. A bull circling around. A cow 1 metre away from us wondering if there is enough tea for everyone? Well. Shit. We quickly packed up and I shoved the almost cooked dinner in the one pot and we drove somewhere in between the crocs and the cows. We ate dinner and went to bed. 
Woke up the next day desperate for the usual morning piddle so we packed up as quickly as we could and headed to a little area with caravans and a toilet/shower block. I passed on the shower as the cubicle door wouldn't have covered much. We decided since we were making good progress we'd have an easy day. Casually had breakfast, chatted to an old guy, got the tent out to air off the condensation. Thinking about packing everything up Phil got in the tent to stick the duvet back in, I moved from underneath to open the boot, when within seconds the whole 60kg tent fell off the roof of the car, with Phil in it. I have never been stunned in to silence before but I couldn't see him and he just fell 6ft and had 60kg fold up on him, I was horrified. Managing to get a response from Phil I pulled the tent away from the car and he tried to get out. Phil standing, with a sore foot that was squashed under the ladder, a sore shin that hit the edge of the tent when it impacted with the floor and an injured shoulder as a result of the fault. I won't go in to too much detail as this is an ongoing problem and has not been resolved with the company responsible. The long and short of it is the fact that, despite questioning it, we were given the wrong feet for the roof bars which held on the tent. It wasn't for lack of checking and tightening that happened, the pure and simple of it was the wrong part. There was damage to the car, a broken, unusable tent, damage to the Phil and a distressed Becca. 
I dread to think of what could have happened, I think, given the circumstances, we are quite luckily. What if we were sleeping in it in the middle of the night? What if it came off at 110km/h and hit a car travelling behind us? (and Australian's do love to tailgate). What if Phil landed differently? That thought made me almost puke. On the way to Cairn's we realised we didn't have anywhere to sleep tonight and had to get a motel - money we hadn't anticipated. We also couldn't well cook in the motel car park and we hadn't eaten since breakfast, so had to find somewhere to eat, luckily, the place we found to eat let us order, even if it was 20:59 and service ends at 21:00. Exhausted and emotionally drained after the days events and driving over 750km in one hit, we went to bed, we would have to deal with this all tomorrow.
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