Almost constant rain and a never-ending flow of heavy vehicles has destroyed the Bruce Highway. North of Brisbane the road has been reduced to a patch work of potholes and repairs. We were unfortunately on the receiving end of some damage – twice in four days.
Tire change anyone?
We’d spent a several hours dodging potholes (including some car swallowing ones) as we headed north to Mackay. We were towing a trailer full of camping and caravanning gear for our trip which made dodging more difficult. After Christian avoided two big potholes, he hit a third. It was obvious we’d blown a tire, it was just a waiting game to see which one. The tire pressure sensors soon told us; the drivers side rear was sitting at 0kPa.
The tire side wall was ripped and we feared we’d damaged a rim too. It was late in the day and Christian fitted the spare tire in record time as light faded. We went slowly ahead, knowing we were two hours from a replacement tire. The next morning involved a frantic ring around tire stores in Rockhampton. It turns out our tires are a rare size and we were not getting an identical tire the same day. Bridgestone gave us some good advice; buy a “cheapie” to get us to Mackay, and get rid of those ridiculous wheels and tires. Even a cheapie isn’t cheap on 20 inch wheels, and we had a big expense ahead to replace five wheels and tires.
We knew the factory wheels and tire were impractical. We put replacing them off, thinking we’d do it after wearing the tires out first. But if we can’t find the right tire in Rockhampton, we have no hope as we get further and further from the coast.
A windscreen for good measure
A particularly nasty piece of road soured our morning after leaving the Capricorn Caves. A narrow bridge filled with potholes coincided with the appearance of a large truck. We threaded the needle between potholes and the truck, but received a very large stone straight into the windscreen. It made so much noise Abby thought perhaps the needle hadn’t been threaded! Twin bulls eyes appeared in the glass and some coarse language and a sinking feeling returned.
An auto glass repairer delivered the bad news – no repair is possible. The bulls eyes were both too big and had joined. A double whammy that means a windscreen replacement. Given some of the roads we hope to drive soon, we have put the replacement off for now. No doubt it will happen again. Until then, we are one big a big jolt away from windscreen replacement.