Tennant Creek - Northern Territory

We passed through the last town in Queensland, Camooweal, and then not far down the road, came to the border! How exciting to be crossing into unchartered land - well for us anyway. So after a few quick snaps at the border we were off again to discover the Northern Territory.

The first difference we noticed in NT, was the speed signs -130kms on the highway. Chris could stop holding the truck back now and let her cruise along at 130kms - if only - the poor old truck couldn't even hit 130kms, let alone with the van on. It is a big difference though, when cars would overtake us - they were flying. I was so keen to get a photo of the speed sign, but every time we came across one, I would miss it. There was a fair distance between each sign, so I would put the camera down and then forget about it and of course, we would see the sign and by the time I grab the camera and turned it on - I would miss it! I was determined to get a picture. The kids were even helping by yelling out "speed sign MUM!!" - and still I would miss it. But eventually I got one - so I hope you all really enjoy it because it took a lot of effort to get it!

Our first stop in the Northern Territory was the Barkly Homestead. We stopped for a snack, an expensive snack can I add, and then back in the car for the rest of the trip to the Devil's Marbles where we were going to stop for the night. Since leaving Mt Isa, we had changed destination about 4 times. We were going to stop at a couple of free camp spots, but we don't really like to stay on the side of the highway when we are the only van there, so keep pushing on till we find somewhere better.

Over the last couple of weeks, the kids have discovered bubble gum - and are now fascinated with trying to blow bubbles with it. We bought some bubble gum at the Barkly Homestead and then it was a competition to see who could blow the biggest bubble - between Mum and Dad anyway! The kids struggled to blow bubbles, but that didn't stop Jack from trying. He would try and try and try - and on one of the tries he actually spat the bubble gum out and it landed on his lap and broke us all into laughter.

We hit the road again, keen to get to the Devil's Marbles and get out of the truck. However.....we pulled into Tennant Creek to fill up with fuel and I took the kids to the toilet and came back to see if Chris was finished so I could pay. He had just finished, when I returned and he looked up at me, pale and worried and said......."we have a major problem!". My stomach dropped and I started getting the shakes even before I knew what was wrong.

It was the van. Where it sits over the king pin hitch that connects to the truck was sitting down a lot lower than normal and almost touching the boxes on the back of the truck. Chris immediately knew something was broken and suspected that it was the beam across the front of the van. So now, in a mad panic, we had to decide what to do. We were in Tennant Creek, at 5:00pm on a Wednesday afternoon, with a van that we didn't know if we could drive it anywhere.

I immediately rang the insurance company who informed us that we needed to get the van to an engineers to have a look and determine the problem. Luckily for us there was an engineer in town and he was still at work, and said to come around and he would have a look. We didn't know whether their would be anyone in town to fix it - or if we would have to get it towed or what would happened. It was a sickening feeling not knowing what would happen.

Because of the style of the fifth wheeler, you couldn't actually see what the problem was, so the decision was made to stay in the front yard of his workshop and they would take the front of the van apart the next morning to check out the problem.

Come back and read the next installment to find out about what has broken in the van and how we have to fix it.........