Hi everyone; I am coming to you all the way from up in sunny Townsville, North Queensland. *YAY*
Last Thursday my cousin, my Dad and myself got up at a ripe time of 2.30am, jumped in my Dad's fifteen year old (and recently re-modeled) ute and made the treacherous 18 hour drive. All was going well; we had sore butts, had done a fair amount of shared driving, made "pull over now" pit stops and were listening to Stephen Fry read us the first Harry Potter book. However, fate was waiting to give us a not so pleasant surprise when as we were coming over a bridge just after nightfall; when a huge Brahman cow came sprinting out of nowhere and made a moment none of us will forget. I remember saying "Woo Dad, Woo" and then apparently I was shouting "cow, cow, cow!!!". Dad, being the incredible driver he is swerved slightly and braked gently. Nothing could have been done to stop us from hitting the cow without most likely tipping the ute, but Dad made the best out of a worst case scenario. Had he not done what he did, the cow may have hit us in the middle, causing it to either flip over and come through the windscreen or otherwise gone under us causing us to roll. I am very, very thankful for my Dad's ability to drive safely and he possibly saved all of our lives. As it was, we hit her doing most likely 90kms (we had just slowed down for a truck) and boy can I just say that I am so thankful for bullbars and seat belts. The bullbar minimised most of the impact which meant that no one got in anyway hurt (except of course for the poor cow who would have died instantly). We got out to check everything was okay, and although we couldn't look under the hood (as it was all pushed up) everything seemed to be working okay. The flesh damage was bad, and the whole front will need to be redone (thanks be to insurance). After checking the cow was off the road and there was nothing from the accident that would hurt anyone else we were on our way again. About thirty seconds later we heard a loud dragging noise. We got out and realised that the muffler had come unattached to the stack. Now if you ever break down, my Dad is who you want to do it with, because he is not only an engineer without papers, but he is also a fully fledged diesel mechanic *cheers again*. So he fixed it and another twenty minutes later we were on the road again! We got to Charters Towers and what to do you know, RBT. The Cop proceeds to ask Dad how he is, to which Dad replies "Ï've been better" and the Cop presumes he of course has been drinking (he hadn't, obviously - in fact he was doing Dry July) and then we went on to have a great old chat about how that piece of road is a death trap for accidents. Soon enough, we were on our way and what do you know it, maybe half an hour to go; we ran over a poor little wallaby. And then...finally we were in Towny! I was of course running on adrenalin, shaky hands and little else and proceeded to get us all very, very lost, adding an extra 20 minutes to the journey. But eventually, with my brother counseling me via the phone and Courty using her GPS; we arrived. The next day Mitch helped Dad pull the bullar back so they could access the engine. It was then that they discovered the radiator was broken (yes, the one Dad had shipped from WA and put in a week earlier) and so what was supposed to be a relaxing day to recover from driving was actually a "fix the ute" day. Luckily my brother is also a diesel mechanic and they got it all sorted and were on the road the next day on their trip to the Cape, while Court and I stayed here to look after the dog, house and have ourselves our own holiday. And that in itself has been an adventure of a lifetime too! I will write a blog post at the end of the three weeks, but if you'd like to see what we've been up to in the mean time, head on over to my instagram/twitter/tumblr feed or search #jemwalks
-You're Beautiuful, Jem :) xo
Last Thursday my cousin, my Dad and myself got up at a ripe time of 2.30am, jumped in my Dad's fifteen year old (and recently re-modeled) ute and made the treacherous 18 hour drive. All was going well; we had sore butts, had done a fair amount of shared driving, made "pull over now" pit stops and were listening to Stephen Fry read us the first Harry Potter book. However, fate was waiting to give us a not so pleasant surprise when as we were coming over a bridge just after nightfall; when a huge Brahman cow came sprinting out of nowhere and made a moment none of us will forget. I remember saying "Woo Dad, Woo" and then apparently I was shouting "cow, cow, cow!!!". Dad, being the incredible driver he is swerved slightly and braked gently. Nothing could have been done to stop us from hitting the cow without most likely tipping the ute, but Dad made the best out of a worst case scenario. Had he not done what he did, the cow may have hit us in the middle, causing it to either flip over and come through the windscreen or otherwise gone under us causing us to roll. I am very, very thankful for my Dad's ability to drive safely and he possibly saved all of our lives. As it was, we hit her doing most likely 90kms (we had just slowed down for a truck) and boy can I just say that I am so thankful for bullbars and seat belts. The bullbar minimised most of the impact which meant that no one got in anyway hurt (except of course for the poor cow who would have died instantly). We got out to check everything was okay, and although we couldn't look under the hood (as it was all pushed up) everything seemed to be working okay. The flesh damage was bad, and the whole front will need to be redone (thanks be to insurance). After checking the cow was off the road and there was nothing from the accident that would hurt anyone else we were on our way again. About thirty seconds later we heard a loud dragging noise. We got out and realised that the muffler had come unattached to the stack. Now if you ever break down, my Dad is who you want to do it with, because he is not only an engineer without papers, but he is also a fully fledged diesel mechanic *cheers again*. So he fixed it and another twenty minutes later we were on the road again! We got to Charters Towers and what to do you know, RBT. The Cop proceeds to ask Dad how he is, to which Dad replies "Ï've been better" and the Cop presumes he of course has been drinking (he hadn't, obviously - in fact he was doing Dry July) and then we went on to have a great old chat about how that piece of road is a death trap for accidents. Soon enough, we were on our way and what do you know it, maybe half an hour to go; we ran over a poor little wallaby. And then...finally we were in Towny! I was of course running on adrenalin, shaky hands and little else and proceeded to get us all very, very lost, adding an extra 20 minutes to the journey. But eventually, with my brother counseling me via the phone and Courty using her GPS; we arrived. The next day Mitch helped Dad pull the bullar back so they could access the engine. It was then that they discovered the radiator was broken (yes, the one Dad had shipped from WA and put in a week earlier) and so what was supposed to be a relaxing day to recover from driving was actually a "fix the ute" day. Luckily my brother is also a diesel mechanic and they got it all sorted and were on the road the next day on their trip to the Cape, while Court and I stayed here to look after the dog, house and have ourselves our own holiday. And that in itself has been an adventure of a lifetime too! I will write a blog post at the end of the three weeks, but if you'd like to see what we've been up to in the mean time, head on over to my instagram/twitter/tumblr feed or search #jemwalks
-You're Beautiuful, Jem :) xo