So I'm going to try and cut a long story short and bring this blog up to date...
Following on from the previous post...
Day 2 of the journey I was feeling optimistic about making it home in the rolla. We had to get a jump to start the day but once we were on the road the car was performing similarly to the previous day (rough, but pushing on..) the first half of the day was great, we stopped for lunch and the car started again no trouble! So the alternator seemed to be working!
About three quarters of the way into the days journey we were pulled over by a policeman who had been called by a 'concerned driver' informing him that we had no plates... there was no issue as we had a permit, so he went on his way.. However, we had had to turn the car off when talking to the policeman and unfortunately it would not start again! (I had thought about asking the policeman for a jump but he wasn't in a great mood ;)
We were in the middle of nowhere so I flagged down a passing car, I asked the driver if he could help us out with a quick jump start... which he flatly refused! (this was the only time in the trip where we had someone object to helping us out.. pretty disappointing..) So I had to call the roadside assist again..
The roadside assist guy was really helpful again but told us that the alternator really was busted this time and even the bush mechanic's whack didn't help. So he charged our battery as much as he could and offerred to drive behind us till we got to the next town!
We seemed to be ok as we drove to the next town (thankfully the rolla has very few running electrics!), but I knew it would only be a matter of time before we came to a grinding halt..
We pushed on to our destination for day two, we limped the last 5kms or so, and ended up bunny hopping the last 500m to the hotel as the battery fully died.. as we got to the hotel the car gave one last shudder and stopped.. At this point I knew there was not much hope of getting any further in this trip without a new alternator..
So after many phone calls to my dad and younger bro discussing options for getting home, in an act of incredible generosity, my bro and his wife said they'd come in the morning with a car trailer and get us home! (we were 6hrs away from where they live!! and at least 5hrs from home!)
The next day they arrived around midday and we set about trying to get the car onto the trailer and tied down.. we'd never done this before and it was a bigger effort than we had anticipated and took several hours.. here's some photos and a link to a vid of the saga!
Total amateur hour! :)
I'm a bit of a blogger noob so couldn't quite figure out video embedding but there's a link below to see the Vid.
Arrgghh! And so much rain to boot! What a day! Thanks again Ashleigh and Jonathan for your incredible generosity that day - rescue cupcakes and all :)
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