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What a day today has been. There are no words to describe how we are feeling at the end of a very long and traumatic day.
We left Grass Patch early this morning, around 8.30am heading to Esperance, which is only about two hours south. We didn't even eat breakfast before we left, thinking we would get something once we were there. It should have been a smooth and easy drive, leaving us plenty of time to look around Esperance and get to our chosen location to camp for the next few days.
Except that 15 minutes into our journey there was a bang and the caravan suddenly swayed and we knew the tyre had blown. Luckily we have Alko ESC brakes and they immediately pulled the van up and we were able to stop safely on the side of the highway.
Gadi checked out the damage and at this stage we thought it was just a tyre blow out and we could change the tyre and keep going.
It soon became clear that there was a far bigger problem. In fact the suspension completely broke and there were several leaves of the suspension spread over the last kilometer or so on the road. A lady and her children traveling as part of the support team for the 450 motor bikes taking part in the ride for prostate cancer stopped to see if they could help, and the two kids kindly ran up the road and picked up the leaf suspension pieces that had fallen off.
We soon realised we would need to be towed to Esperance - some 45 minutes away. Very lucky that we have top RACV cover!
Anyway, it took several phone calls and a few hours for a tow truck to finally arrive - not before Gadi set up chairs and a table on the side of the road so we could eat some breakfast mid morning. It must have been quite a sight to the few trucks and cars that passed us.
The tow truck driver had great difficulty getting the caravan on the back of the remote controlled sliding tray and it took around an hour of pulling, pushing, scraping and dragging our poor van until finally it was loaded.
We followed behind as our caravan was towed to a repairer in Esperance.
Once there, the repairer spent a long time looking under the caravan and inside it while it was still on the tow truck. He told us he would be unable to do any repairs for a couple of weeks at least and he felt the caravan had too much structural damage to warrant it being repaired. We were shocked to hear all of this.
We felt quite devastated and unsure of what would happen next. We spoke many times to the RACV who were arranging accommodation for us - importantly I specified it had to be a place that would allow Cadbury inside the accommodation.
Eventually the caravan was towed to the mechanic/wreckers where there was room to store it securely while we wait for the RACV and insurance company to determine the future of our caravan - and therefore our extended holiday!
Finally around 4pm we arrived at our new home - a lovely self contained studio unit on a private 7 acre property a few minutes out of town - for the next few days. Now we need to try to begin to process the day's events and feel thankful that despite the potential loss of our beloved home on wheels, we (and Cadbury) are ok.
After settling in we decided to get our bearings and at least try to catch a beach sunset, which we did from the top of the Rotary Lookout. Wow, Esperance sure is a gorgeous town, blessed with white sandy beaches in abundance and hundreds of islands immediately off shore. Time to go back to our new accommodation and get our heads around today's events, as I know we have not yet begun to process what has happened.
Good night from Esperance in WA, a town we have not really even seen anything of as yet- other than a taste from the hill top. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day and we can start to sort out some of this mess.
- comments
Bernie Holy s***! And things were going so well! Hope all can be resolved!
Elana Ouch, That's not good at all! What is the status this morning??
Elana Not sure what to say, I guess it is an adventure as well as a holiday after all.