We never planned to be on the road as full-time nomads, it sort of just happened. After some career-changing events caused us to rethink our work-life balance, we decided to try working contracts in different towns and travel in between. Maybe it was the unimaginable amount of safety briefings I have had to participate in as a tradie on job sites, but my first instinct was to prepare for the worst, which in my thoughts was to have breakdown or medical emergency coverage in case the worst happened somewhere remote without phone service.
This was in the days before Starlink, so to combat the comms problems, we bought an expensive satellite phone. Being accustomed to plenty of breakdowns due to my history of driving bombs in my youth, I was well aware of the advantages of having RACQ Ultra Care as breakdown cover. All this planning came into play much earlier than I could have expected.
After working and travelling throughout the Cape York Peninsula with our ute and caravan for six months, the time had finally come to head back south. We were excited, with plans to catch up with friends at campgrounds and opportunities to see the family again. The schedule was looking good too. We had planned for some long days behind the wheel but also kept a few days up our sleeves in case we wanted to stay somewhere a bit longer. This is just how we like it.
TYPICAL CAPE YORK CONDITIONS
Leaving Weipa, it was typical Cape York road conditions on the Peninsula Development Road. Bumpy, dusty, with a whole lot of road works. The water trucks on the construction sections turned the dust to mud, but the relief from the corrugations was worth it.
We only got about 100km down the road before the first sign of trouble showed itself. The temperature gauge on our Triton was rising. We looked for a safe place to pull over and managed to get off the road at the start of a bitumen section. The ute was not happy. She was hissing and carrying on, running a bit hot. Unfortunately, I am not too mechanically-minded, but I figured there was not much to do at this stage but to wait and let the Triton cool down. So we took the kids out of the car and sat in the bush to wait.
After letting the engine cool down and topping it up with coolant, we thought we should try to move off and hope for the best. Our hopes were quickly shattered as the temp soon started climbing again. We were going past a nice section of the road with a nice spot to pull over a safe distance from the traffic.
After pulling in and discussing our predicament, we decided that we should get help and not risk driving the ute anymore, in case we caused more damage. This was where our expensive satellite phone that we had bought before the start of the trip paid for itself. With a call to RACQ on a still-dodgy line, we managed to get things sorted and had a tow truck en route from Weipa to take the ute, the caravan, and the family back to Weipa. Because it was a Saturday, we would have to wait until Monday before anyone could even see our car. So we enjoyed another few days in Weipa.
FIXED? NOT SO FAST
We got the ute back from the mechanic with a flushed-out radiator, a serviced thermo fan and a new thermostat, and the next morning we hit the road again. We drove the entire day and ended up at Musgrave Roadhouse that night. The 370km we travelled that day was a good test. The result, however, was less than ideal. Towards the end of the day, after some good hills, the ute was getting hot again. Not as bad as the previous time, but enough to be a concern. We thought we would give it a rest overnight and see what it was like in the morning.
The next day, we set off again and by the time we approached Hann River Roadhouse, only 60km down the road, we decided that we did not want to risk another overheating incident, pulled the pin and call RACQ again. This time, we requested to be towed to a Mitsubishi dealer in Cairns. Due to the remoteness of our location, and the long distance to be towed, we would have to wait until the next morning for a tow truck to come from Cooktown and tow us the 400km to Cairns.
Luckily for us, we were at Hann River Roadhouse, so we camped for the night and got to enjoy the whole day there, something we would not have done if we were not stuck there. The kids enjoyed the many different animals they have on site. We enjoyed beautiful bush surroundings with a campfire cook-up.
Early the next morning, the towie arrived and loaded us all up. The drive to Cairns was a slow process, but the towie was accomodating of our needs at the time with the two toddlers. We dropped the ute at the dealership and the towie parked us up at a caravan park, and finally we could breathe a sigh of relief.
What came next was weeks, which turned to a month, of our ute being out of action as the diagnosis and repairs went on. Fortunately, all the works were covered under warranty. However, the cost of staying at a fancy Cairns caravan park for an extended period was hurting us.
Our solution was to pick up some work in a nearby town. With all the extra time we spent in the Cairns area, we not only got to have a good look around from a tourist’s point of view, we also got to experience life in the area as a local, as we made friends with the locals at work and saw things from their point of view too. Another experience that we would not have had if it wasn’t for our breakdown.
By the time we finished the work contract, our ute was operational once again and we continued our life on the road. This was not the only disaster we faced on the road. It wasn’t even the first; however, it did cause us the most disruption. Even still, thanks to our prior planning in anticipation of such events, it all went about as well as it could have. These days, the satphone has been replaced by Starlink but the RACQ Ultra Care gets renewed every year without hesitation, even on the years when we are not on the road full time.
– Elvin Pal
