Normanton

Well we were originally intending to head to Karumba (One of Australia's 50 or so self proclaimed fishing capitols). We've been getting complacent with the bus lately, thinking that we've fixed all the major issues. We made it about 10 K's out of town when we heard a bang and the bus veered off to the left. We managed to stay on the road and pulled over. And thought we had blown the front left tyre.
When we got out everything looked fine, the tyre was OK, everything to do with the steering looked OK (Except finding the steering swing arm bushes are worn practically to nothing and will need replacing real soon).
So, confused, we drove back in to Normanton to continue testing.
After driving around slowly with Rachael outside listening for weird noises (to the amusement of the locals in the pub) Rachael diagnosed that the front left wheel bearing had exploded. This being because it was making metal screeching noises and the metal was so hot after driving you couldn't touch it...

Here is the damage, the grease cap has exploded and the bearing has chewed itself to pieces


Is it coincidence that this has occurred in less than one week after the mechanic at Cairns re-packed all the wheel bearings? We've contacted him about it and he's sending a wheel bearing kit to Normanton which is good, at least he's taking some responsibility. It just means we'll be staying in Normanton for at least the next week. (There's not much in Normanton, it is the biggest town for about 5 hours drive any direction, with a population of 1300...) Hopefully we might get lucky while staying here and see the morning glory cloud phenomenon (although its not due to start until next month.)
Normanton is also the home of the biggest croc ever recorded, which was a whopping 8.63 metres long (crocs this size don't exist any more after mass culling, the biggest getting to about 6 metres)

Tomorrow there is a fish festival on at Karumba which should be worth a visit, so we'll take the bike (Our only reliable vehicle) over to see the sights.

Before breaking down in Normanton we've had a pretty good time being back in Oz. We stopped in at Etty bay on the way down, which is a beautiful coastal town where we had a BBQ on the beach. The town has 5 local cassowaries and they've obviously figured out that anyone having a BBQ is a prime target.
These are really big birds up close, their feet are probably the most impressive and dangerous aspect of them.
After harassing us for about half an hour this cassowary attacked a nearby teenager's car for being too shiny..

After that we stayed at a few free camps as we crossed the great dividing range and stopped in at Undara volcanic national park, home to the longest lava tube system in the world.
You couldn't explore the tubes unless you went on a guided tour, which cost $50 (which was more than we could afford after the brakes incident). We broke the budget and took the tour and were a bit underwhelmed. We also climbed the rim of one of the volcanoes (the kalkani crater) which was pretty amazing, more simply to see the landscape than for the crater though.

Trees growing out from one of the cave-ins in the lava tubes

Kalkani Crater from above

Also in lemon news we also lost the awning while parked at a free camp on the Gilbert river (or gilbert stream in the dry season). I had just started setting ut up when one of the people at the camp stopped to chat to me. stupidly I didn't finish clicking in the struts and while we were chatting a very slight gust of wind blew the awning upwards and pulled it clean off the roof.

After inspecting I found that the previous owner has, for some reason, only screwed the awning into the fibreglass section of the roof, and not bothered drilling into the metal beneath it. I just can't understand how he thought that would be OK....

Anyway, putting it back on ended up being a small issue thanks to the help of our new friends Sharon and Bruce who we've met up with at some of the free camps along the way.
We were meant to meet up again at Karumba, but the bus has struck again...

We've also had some blown fuses due to a dodgy lighter socket and the exhaust pipe has come undone due to my shitty welding. (I think I should just get welding done professionally in the future, or do a course on it..) But these all pale into insignificance compared with the exploding wheel bearing...

I've also put some very tight fencing cable on the bike rack to help attach it to the bus a bit better, to prevent a repeat from the last time it came off....