We left Ocean grove just after 10am. We were driving carefully and a little slow. We had been praying for Portland and for God to use us in Portland and not long after at around 11:45am our vehicle lost power. Shane managed to pull over at the side of the road safely.
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| RACV arrived... |
Our vehicle would not start and there was no obvious cause as far as we could tell. We didn't know at the time but it was around 40 degrees when we broke down, so we were stuck on the side of the road in extreme heat!
We called the RACV, they didn't take too long to arrive which was good. The man from RACV thought that it was due to towing a caravan in such extreme heat and our vehicle just needed to cool down.
We waited but it wouldn't start. Eventually it started and so we drove a few minutes down the road and then we were stuck on the side of the road again. Our vehicle lost power again...We had to wait once again for a tow truck to arrive and rescue us.
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| YAY, the tow truck arrived... |
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| This was our side of the road view... |
It was decided the tow truck would take our caravan and after our vehicle had another rest, we should be able to drive it to Lismore which was about a 20 minute drive from were we where.
Once again our car started, this time we drove for about 5 seconds and it lost power, BOOHOO.
By this time it was extremely hot, the girls were very hot, bothered and exhausted. Shane and I were not in the best of moods, we were getting worried about our girls in the heat and about our vehicle and caravan that were both meant to get us safely around Australia. By now we had been sitting in the very hot sun for a few hours and it was VERY HOT!
It was then decided the girls would sit in the air conditioned tow truck while we waited for the RACV man from earlier to arrive and take us to the Lismore depot (no other cars were available). The tow truck would tow both our vehicle and caravan to the Lismore depot.
We waited a bit longer, and finally made the 20 minute drive to Lismore.
We hoped RACV would save the day quickly, however that did not happen!
I think we arrived at a little town called Lismore at about 2:30pm. We were told RACV would contact us shortly and we could either wait in the hot depot or the pub across the road.
In the mean time, the tow truck had to pull over and allow his truck to cool down because our vehicle and caravan that he was towing on this very hot day was overheating his truck, ARRGGHHH!!
So we went to the pub for a lemonade (we left quickly, the F word was very popular) and then we waited in the heat, we only had some water and Shane's phone since all our things were in the vehicle and caravan (it was meant to be behind us). About 1 to 1 1/2 hours later, our vehicle and caravan arrived at the Lismore depot.
We still hadn't heard from RACV, we kept trying to chase them up. What made it worse was that it had reached about 43 degrees by now, we had no where to go, we were in the heat, our girls were trying to cope as best they could. Our girls were doing well, but it was getting too much for them, and they were exhausted and teary.
It was HORRIBLE...I felt SOOOOOOO bad and sorry for my girls!
In the end we had to keep chasing up RACV, they kept telling us they would see what they could do and after some firm talking, they finally agreed to get us, our caravan and vehicle towed to Portland, however, we had to agree to not have a hire vehicle after we got there. They finally agreed to this at about 6:30pm, the tow truck arrived with a vehicle to just get us to portland at about 7:30pm and we finally made it to Portland at nearly 10:30pm...About 10 1/2 LONG and HOT hours after we first contacted RACV, we finally arrived at Portland!
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| The girls full of joy...they found a cat to play with at the depot while we waited for the second tow truck to hitch our caravan and vehicle... |
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| The second tow truck hitching our caravan and vehicle... |
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| Finally a car to get us to Portland... |
When we reached Portland, we were greeted with NYE fireworks. We eventually pulled over on the side of the road and watched the fireworks..the girls later said, even though it was a horrible day the fireworks made it one of the best days! I'm SOOOOOOO proud of how our girls handled this horrible situation, sooo VERY proud.
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| Getting closer to Portland... |
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| Views on the way to Portland, the beautiful sky that greeted us and following our caravan... |
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| The Fireworks... |
At this present moment we are at Portland (post to come tomorrow), something is wrong with our vehicle but it can't be looked at until we chat with a mechanic on Monday. We hope to God its not too expensive and its nothing serious.
Please pray for us, it was a very difficult experience, we hope it never happens again!
Take Care, Give your LOVED ones a HUG and have a Goodnight,
Dimi xoxox
To Be Continued... Another post tomorrow...God always sends us GREAT people. God is good all the time, all the time God is good :-)
