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Happiness Is The Road
After brekky we drove a short distance down the road to Mount Tibrogargan. It was extremely busy because today is a public holiday in Australia. It is Anzac day and it seemed that everybody had decided to go up Mount Tibrogargan. The car park was rammed and we couldn't get on it. No worries we drove about half a kilometre down the road to another parking area and just about managed to find a space here. This was supposed to be a very steep walk and Jay opted out of this one. I went off on my own whilst Jay waited at the camper. The first part of the walk was a fairly steep and rocky winding path. I was expecting it to get a lot steeper as the sign at the bottom stated the walk was for experienced climbers.There were lots of people going up and down. Eventually the path turned a sharp corner and I saw the climbing bit ahead. It was a good scramble up the rocks but it wasn't scarily steep or high. The main problem was that it was absolute bedlam. There were just far too many people here and there really wasn't enough space for everybody to climb. I patiently waited my turn and hauled myself the twelve feet or so up the rocks to where there was an open area. This area was packed full of people either coming down or waiting to go higher. The next section was about a 20 foot climb. It didn't look too difficult and on a quiet day I would have gone for it but it was hell up here today and I couldn't be bothered. Also the people up here really weren't my type and I couldn't wait to get down. I felt suffocated by all the horrid people. I waited my turn and clambered back down. Mightily relieved to get away from this lot I made my way back to the bottom and then went on the walking trail around the base of the mountain. I was very happy to see Jay when I got back to the camper. After a kiss and cuddle we hit the road with the intention of going to Rainbow Beach. We didn't get very far. We turned out of the car park but went the wrong way. We turned around a very short way up and then set off again. Just as I put the camper into second gear we heard a funny noise from the engine and I immediately pulled over to the side of the road. It didn't sound good. Jay thought that we might have driven over something as when I was on the walk she had heard what sounded like an accident on the road. She walked up the road to see if there was any debris. Whilst doing this Jay got speaking to a woman who lived here. There had been an accident earlier but there had been no debris and no one was hurt. A car had come too quickly over the crest of the hill and gone into a parked car. As the car parks were full there had been loads of cars parked on both sides of the road. The problem was we were now broken down just over the crest of this same hill! Jay waited on the crest warning the idiot drivers to slow down whilst I investigated. Jay had found a bit of rubber on the road and to me it looked like part of a belt. I looked in the engine and did indeed find that a belt had snapped. It looked to me that it was the fan belt. I phoned the RACQ. They said that they would be with us within two hours. They said that they would tow us to the nearest garage. They added that as it was Anzac day we wouldn't be getting repaired today. She said that their patrols did not carry fan belts. It was sods law that we should break down on a public holiday! We moved the van a bit further down the hill and then kept our eye on it from the crest and slowed down the speeding idiots. The RACQ tow truck was with us after only an hour. He took a look at the engine and confirmed that it looked like the fan belt. He sat us in the back of the tow truck and then he hauled our little camper onto the back of the truck. He was a really friendly guy. Jay was really quite excited as she has never been in a tow truck before. This was all rather exciting in a funny kind of way. We didn't know exactly where we were going. We were dropped off at a garage in an industrial area on the edge of Beerwah about 8 kilometres from where we had broken down. As it was a public holiday the place was deserted. The RACQ guy left us and the camper in the yard an told us where we could find the town centre. He asked us whether we would be staying the night in the camper and said that it would be okay if we wanted to. We decided to rough it in the garage yard as it would be free and because we are extremely hardcore now! We locked the camper up and then had a wander into the town to see if anything was open. It wasn't but it did kill a bit of time. On the way we went past a pub and just couldn't resist. We had two lovely cold refreshing pots of XXXX Bitter. We then went back to the camper and had our tea whilst watching the sun set over the industrial area. It was all rather beautiful! The only problem was the loo or rather the lack of one. I remembered back to when I had broken down at Streaky Bay and spent the night in their yard. I was lucky because they had a little outside loo that I used. I went for a wander round to the back of the garage to suss out where we could wee. To my joy I found two unlocked outside toilets here. Never have we both been so happy to see a toilet!
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