Day 88 / 2017 - Heading South

The time to leave and head south is upon us. We have enjoyed our stay and would consider living here but the call of family and friends is too much, so we are now into the final leg of our Big Lap Around Australia. We did have to delay our departure untill Wednesday due to cyclone Debbie. We were lucky it didn't affect us as it crossed the coast the other side of Bowen from us. It will become more of a problem for us as some of the areas we will pass through will have been affected by the cyclone.

Before leaving, we tested and checked as much of the caravan and car as we could. My first task was to check the sacrificial anode in the Hot Water System. I must have had a brain fade, not really thinking about what I am doing. Unscrewing the anode at the last thread it shot out under pressure hitting the fence and spraying water everywhere. In my mind I had assumed as we hadn't used the caravan in over 6 months, all the pressure would have bled from water system. How wrong, I should have checked, lucky no damage or anyone getting hurt. Being a bit more cautious. I then made sure the gas stove and gas  HWS worked. We turned on the fridge, checking it worked on power and gas. Finally tested the onboard water pump and power system then flushed the water tanks. I intended to test the air heater but the ambient temperature was to high so it wouldn't turn on, we will have to wait for a colder day to test that one.

We also changed the Patrol's engine oil with some help from Frank. The car had only done 2,500 km of normal driving since the last change and still had 7,000 Km to go but there were a couple of reasons to change now, since the last change by the Nissan Dealer the sump plug is slowly weeping oil, It had been six months since the last change and finally since we will be towing (they considered towing severe driving) it is recommended you increase the frequency of oil changes. We are expecting to do over 4,000 Km before we come near a place where we can get the oil changed, which would put it over my comfort zone of 6,000 to 7,000 km. Draining the oil pan and inspecting the sump plug we could see a big gouge across the sealing face of the plug. The plug was done up so tight it was obvious the service Tech had seen the leak and decided to apply brute force to stop it. The gouge looks like the reason it leaked as it went from the thread to the outside edge. We filed the sealing face as flat as we could, then replaced the mangled copper washer before re-inserting the plug back into the drain hole. I didn't bother changing the filter as that was only 2,500 Km, the drained oil looked quite clean.

Loading the car took some time as we had to clean off the cobwebs due to being stored in the shed. We did try to shed some more weight, but we have done this so many times now there really wasn't that much more to get rid of. 

We have an idea of the route we would take. Leaving Walkamin we would follow the B-Double route out through Tolga then onto Malanda. From there we will head towards Millaa Millaa, but just before turn right and head to Ravenshoe. From Ravenshoe we then head to our first stop a Innot Springs where will will soak in the hot tubs. Next day we will continue on south towards Charters Towers then onto Hughenden and Winton where we plan to visit the Age of Dinosaurs. Will then wind our way further south through Bourke, Broken Hill then Mildura finally arriving in Canberra for a few Weeks.