After the breakdown in Normanton we took the bike out to Karumba to see the seafood festival (very underwhelming but the town was really nice), and on the way back the front tyre blew!! We hailed a couple of people down and they helped us reinflate our tyre and we got another 10 K's or so and then it went down again. Eventually a ute with a few jackaroo's around our age pulled over and helped us put the bike on the back and take it to Normanton. They were pretty interesting guys. The driver was probably younger than we were and had worked in the mines as a diesel mechanic for a while and then when he saved enough had bought three properties at Mount Isa and became a cattle drover.
We've been hearing stories like that all over the place of miners who are 25 and own 3 houses or are on 190K a year. The starting wage for a miner is 85K a year!!! I don't think I was even on 60K when I last had a job and I've got 2 degrees..!
When we were getting the motorhome fixed up we ran into a few people travelling round on a 1976 moto guzzi. It was pretty cool, and they were having just as many mechanical problems as us which was comforting, and actually also had a failed rear wheel bearing at the next free camp we stayed at. If you want to read their blog it's www.guzzioverland.co.uk
It's not as good as this blog though.
Very Modified Guzzi
When the motorhome was eventually fixed up we went down to Mount Isa to see the town. On the way though we noticed the rear wheel bearings were also getting heaps hot (Scalding hot). At one of the free camps on the way though we met a nice ex truckie who taught us how to loosen wheel bearings on truck axles.
The bearing nuts were literally fused on they were tightened so much, I had to actually chisel them off the bearings...
When we got to Mount Isa we took the underground mine tour which was pretty interesting, and got a good insight into the lives of the miners and the layout of a mine. I'm not really into mining but it was actually pretty fascinating.
We got a real miners insight on how to flog free fuel and tools from the mines and learned about one of the locals who managed to make a whole excavator from flogged spare parts from the mine (he got caught though). At the end of the tour the guide kind of ruined it though by giving a 10 minute spiel on why the carbon tax is a bad idea and how it's going to ruin the mining industry. (I don't think they are doing too badly by the look of it). Then everyone started paying out Julia Gillard. The whole town hates her, it is truly a town of bogans...
After this we took the bus to the mechanic in Mount Isa to check over the wheel bearings and brakes (I also adjusted the brakes because the wheel bearings were still getting too hot after adjusting them, the brakes were also on way too tight).
While the bus was in the mechanics we headed over the the underground hospital which was pretty cool, more just because we got to see all the dark ages surgical equipment and machines and cat gut sutures they used back then.
Underground Hospital
When we got back from the tour the mechanic gave us the thumbs up on the bearings and brakes, with the advice that we should add some more grease at the next stop, and we headed for the northern territory.
We made it as far as Camooweal Billabong (180K's) when the bearings started squeaking. So we set up camp and over the next couple of days proceeded to repack the rear bearings (They were still getting heaps hot). This took us ages as we have never done it before, and it is way harder on truck bearings. We also visited the nearby caves on the bike and tested out our new tyre on the dirt road out there.
We repacked the bearings eventually, but might have damaged the seals which stop grease from leaking onto the stub axle and drums when we were removing the hub.
We made it 60 K's down the road to Avon Downs to check the bearings and they were still extremely hot.
The lesson here is never trust a mechanic, ever...
So at that point we headed back to Camooweal billabong and tomorrow we're gonna limp back to Mount Isa doing 30 K's at a time then resting the bearings. This is gonna take all day (It's 180Km's to Mount Isa). We'll then order in some new bearings which will take about a week and try and contact our friendly mechanic in Cairns to try and weasel some money out of him after he destroyed our bus.
It's kind of a plus going back to Mount Isa, even though it's full of Bogans there was still a lot which we didn't do in the surrounding area, and with a fixed up bike we can visit all the off road spots now.
Shade tree mechanic repacking the bearings
In the mean time we're just soaking it up at Camooweal billabong. It's a real nice spot with HEAPS of native birdlife (Being the only water around) there's a lot of native cranes, native budgies, Brolga's and all sorts of other stuff, a lot of people spend weeks here and I can understand why.
No comments:
Post a Comment