Day Thirty Nine - August 14th, 2013
Cairns
Today was a 'bits and bobs' day. Elly had located a Landrover specialist extremely nearby, so we took our chances as drove there on the off chance they might be able to fit us in. The guy was really helpful, and said that even though he was booked out for the next two weeks, he'd fit us in tomorrow as we only have a couple of minor jobs to do. We therefore drove on to Super Cheap Auto to pick up so transmission fluid and windscreen wiper blades. Back at the campsite, Elly pottered with the car, and now we can actually successfully wipe water away from the windscreen! Not wanting to waste the day, but also not having enough time to do any sightseeing, we thought we'd try and tick a few jobs off our list. First, a new key for the Landy. The original broke in Mossman whilst Elliot was filling the car up with petrol, but luckily we had a spare. We don't want a repeat of that in the outback, so set out to get a new one cut. We'd seen a kiosk who offered it next door to Woolworths, but the lady at the counter told us they only do house keys. She set us in the right direction of a place we could go instead. Whilst we were there, we picked up our supplies for the day at Wooly's. A short drive and $8 later, we had a spare key again! Next job: a long sleeved shirt for Elly to wear in the heat of the outback to protect him from them sun. We stopped at Ray's Camping, and left with a pair of walking boots for me ($50 down from $150, and peace of mind for me against snake bites below the ankle!), but no luck on the shirt front. We decided to try K-Mart, and drove north on the Captain Cook highway to one we had spotted on our trip to the Daintree. No luck here either, it was all together the worst K-Mart we've visited to date! We picked up some more gas canisters for our stove and called it a day.
We were hot, bothered and grumpy from a pretty unsuccessful day in a sticky car, so cooled off in the pool. We had it to ourselves, and used the pirate ship and slide to or full advantage. Substantially calmer and restored, we headed out to the Esplanade to a 7km run. The day ended well.
We cooked with Ben and Megan in the busy camp kitchen and chatted over the BBQ. Hopefully we will have everything completed with the car soon, so we can plan some excursions!