Unexpected, I know, this mid week update for a change. I thought seeing as I have finally obtained my new work laptop and have finally managed to interface it to my cellular telephone, I may as well kill some time. And well, here we are.
I suspect I may have jinxed the weather with my comments on Saturday about the good old sunshine. Maximum today out here at Moura was 14 degrees, it was 9 degrees when I left site about half an hour ago. I had forgotten what 9 degrees feels like... it's flaming freezing. Especially when you only bought T shirts for around the camp. At least I have my good jacket for when I was at work, because by crikey I needed it. Most of the Australians went into hibernation actually, they didn't enjoy the temperature one bit. At least being a Kiwi helps.
I can't recall if I mentioned last weekend or not, but I managed to take the better of the nixon mine fleet out this week, the good old dual cab Navara. It is comfortable to drive, and usually doesn't let you down. I say usually, except for that time it got me stuck for 6 hours. And except for today...
It all started late yesterday when I noticed a clunking sound when cornering to the right. I found a handy roundabout and tried to work out what it was, to no avail. Then the clunk progressed to appear when under braking also, and got worse on corners. At this point I had it narrowed down to two suspects, the lower steering balljoint and the wheel bearing. The ball joint was suspect as the boot was split. Hoping it was the ball joint only, I finished the days work and drove back to the camp. I had a bit of a look but couldn't determine which part was causing the problem. As I only had scissor jacks I decided to wait until today and see if I could get it on a hoist out at the mine.
So, back out there this morning, noise getting steadily worse, only to find that all their light vehicles come into Moura for service and are no longer done on site. Great. My poor wee truck wouldn't fit in the big machine workshop, so I decided to attempt the useless scissor jack. So, up in the air it went. I rolled the wheel, and heard that familiar rumbling sound which I got so acquainted with on my good old Discovery for a while there... definitely the wheel bearing then. I grabbed the top of the wheel and managed to get about an inch and a half of inward/outward free play... not ideal. As I didn't happen to have suitable tools to strip a hub there and then, onto the phone and call up the supervisor at work... "slight problem here chief... I need a new truck".
The photo above is my truck going back to Gladstone, they bought down the single cab for me to use for the rest of the week. Still with the smashed windscreen, and with a PVC pipe taped onto the rusted out bullbar for a flag holder.
And then it started to rain. And the wipers on this truck are slow and intermittent. At the same time, usually, and only if you are lucky. And the tires are only all terrains, whereas the dual cab has good muds on it.
*Sigh*
Just my luck really.
And it's freezing in here. Reverse cycle air conditioning here I come.
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