Day 286 (Tuesday 16th September 08)

A better night's sleep as it was so quiet and knew that no one was going to mind us staying there. Went for a very cold shower and had some breakfast. Then headed over to the wild dolphin feeding across the other side of the car park. Pretty amazing to see these wild dolphins come over to the slip to be fed, which they do most mornings. Once this was finished got on our way again up to Rainbow Beach. Had a drive around then walk along the beach. Drove on up to where you can get the barges to Fraser Island. Also saw Fraser Island. Back through the main town and up to Carlson's Sandblow. Just about made it with Hoki Poki as the chugging up the hills is getting really bad now! Well worth it, an amazing sight, tough walk back up the sand hill. Carried on and stopped at a rest area for some lunch. Drove through Gympie but decided there didn't look as if there was much to do so headed further down the coast for the night. Saw a tourist drive so took the turn off to see some of the scenery. Ended up detouring to Lake Borumba by accident. Saw some wallabies on top of the hill which was really awesome. However when we turned Hoki Poki back on the loud rattling noise that usually disappeared didn't. Managed to get down the hill the other side just in time to see that it was the end of the road and didn't lead anywhere for Hoki Poki then to die. Tried for a while to start her and it just wasn't happening so decided to leave it for 10 minutes and try again. During this time checked the phone and saw that there wasn't any phone signal. Hoki Poki still wouldn't start so knew it was time to try and get hold of Wicked Roadside assistance. Messed about for ages trying to get through and managed to get a number for RACQ so that they could send someone out to try and get us on our way again to Brisbane so we could see the Wicked mechanics there. Couldn't get a proper phone signal any more so walked up the hill. Managed to get through to the RACQ and tell them most of the details before it cut out and we couldn't get back through. Didn't know whether they were sending anyone out for us and if they were not sure how long we were going to have to wait as it was getting dark soon so walked further down the hill to try and find another phone. Luckily there was a temporary builders site as they were working on the dam and one of the guys there kindly let us use the phone. They said someone should be with us within an hour. Kindly the builder said that if no one had turned up by 5:30pm to come back and he would give us a lift into town. Walked back to Hoki Poki and tried to start her again just to check. Couldn't believe it when she started up! Drove it around the car park a couple of times but still not convinced she would make it back up the hill so waited for the RACQ guy to turn up. Cooked some food and just as we were done he turned up. He adjusted the timing and drove it up the hill to check it would make it back to Brisbane. We were soon on our way again and a bit of a drive ahead of us wanting to make sure we got to Brisbane before Hoki Poki broke down again! Arrived in Brisbane and found the Wicked mechanics. Parked up close by for the night.