Nowra

The BREAKDOWN!

Driving to towards Nowra we made our way up Camberwarra Mountain.  The car was working hard climbing the mountain in low gear and taking corners at around 15 to 20kph.  But unfortunately this was the start of a bad couple of hours.  At 5:50pm the car blew a transmission line and shut itself down.  We luckily stopped on the first straight stretch of road.  But in the process of the line draining on the previous eight corners we had left a track of 500metre long that need to be cleaned up.  In came the fire brigade to do this...oh my....the problems we caused.  But let me get back to the breakdown.  Nigel calmly tried to move forward on the road after we came to a halt only to rev and roll backwards on the hill... I think this is where my panic hit and the worry of being stuck on a mountain became crystal clear....shit shIT SHIT!  Jordan became extremely worried at this point also and Nigel quickly put me in my place to calm down so that the kids did not become to worried.  I snapped back into mummy mode and got on with the task of organising RACV to collect us.   But as I was ringing Nigel calls out and tells me he see orange flashing lights coming up the previous bend and low and behold our saviours turned up.  NRMA arrived at the most opportunistic time ever.  Thank goodness for that stroke of luck.  They quickly organised a road block and traffic diversion and chase up tow trucks, accommodation and a taxi for us.  They joking said they saw the start of the transmission trail and knew what to expect up front but when they did take the last bend the word F#$% was the expletive they used as they discovered not only a our car but our caravan as well.  And the irony of it all was that we were only 150metres from the top of the hill.  Bloody hills I hate the thought of travelling on them now.

Getting off the mountain
We were all on our way down the mountain around 8:30pm.  The taxi drove us to get some Maccas so we could shovel some tea in.  It had been a long night so far and setting up in the dark was not something we looked forward to.  The caravan was dropped off as we arrived at the caravan park so the kids and I tucked into our tea while Nigel finished up with the tow truck driver.  Nigel then finally sat down with us and ate his tea...I was finished first so decided to unlock the van an start to setup process but our next bit of bad luck happened and the swearing began again.  "Where the the BLOODY keys?"  As I turned my bag inside out the intensity of my swearing increased...This is all we needed.  Nigel had place the keys on top of my bag when we were getting organised but when the tow truck arrived he instructed us all to get in the car and stay inside until we got towed off the main road.  As I pushed the bag off the seat to get back in  the keys must have fallen off.  This was the problem did they fall out of the car on the side of the road or did they just fall out in the car.  Anyway we had no keys so it was time to call a locksmith.  So as I was on the phone Nigel tried in vain to break into the van.  The only entry point that we could access was the front boot which opens up into the van from under our bed.  It was a very small space and we asked Kaleb if he would climb in but he flatly refused.  By this stage I had finally found a working locksmith willing to do a call out when Austin had pushed his way inside of the boot and made his way through the locker box lid.  Vwhala...we were in.  I then promptly had to ring the locksmith back to cancel him and thankfully he had not left... at least that saved us the $160 call out fee.  Ya to Austin....there was a reason for him being a skun rabbit.  That night was pretty miserable to say the least.  Why why why!  How much bad luck can one occur so early on in our grand adventure.  Hopefully this will be the last of it.

The morning saw a new brighter day and Nigel and I could finally have a laugh about it. Now we went and found the keys that had fallen out in the car and then proceed to organise RACV with all our other arrangements for the days we were in Nowra.  They were fabulous and I would have to say it was the best money ever invested on our trip when we paid for TOTAL CARE.  I only had to give them a call and 10minutes later they would ring back and update everything and organise it all.  I could not recommend them more highly.  Nigel arrived with our hire car just after 11am and the kids were impressed...a XR6....purple just like cousin Andrews.  "Wow a purple sports car MUM!" was echoed from the two oldest.  In the afternoon we drove to Jervis Bay and went swimming in the most spectacular beach - Murray's Beach.  The water was so clear and a beautiful turquoise colour and a warm as a bath...it was spectacular...the sand was an amazing white also.  It was like our own little piece of paradise. Only one blemish on the afternoon was when Austin was stung by a bee.  This made him a little upset.  He was a brave boy and was back on his feet in a short time later playing in the sand and the surf.

Our second full day in Nowra was a drive back up Camberwarra Mountain to see the scene of the the breakdown.  It was a nice day so we went to the lookout first then drove to Fitzroy Falls where we had some lunch then walked along the top of the ridge to see the amazing waterfalls all along the escarpment.  After that we got back in the car and went driving through Robertson on our way to Kiama.  At Robertson we were able to get a photo of the BIG POTATO...it looked more like a poo but happily the kids stood in front of it and posed for a BIG photo.  We then drove down Macquarie Pass and were glad we were going down it and not up it...my got the very top of the climb was tight and very steep.  I pity the poor truckers that have to drive it everyday.  Next we went to Kiama and saw the blow hole and swam in our first rock swimming pool.  The kids loved it and so did I.  When then drove the whole way back down the Grand Pacific Drive all the way back to Nowra.  The following day we went to the Fleet Air Arm Museum next to HMAS Albatross base in Nowra.  The exhibition was interesting with lots of different aircraft on display but in particular the kids and Nigel enjoyed the helicopter simulator.  I crashed when I had my go...very hard to control.  Fun though. That night we got the okay with the car and we were able to leave the following morning.  Thank goodness.