After a restless night sleep, William kept us both wake with his tossing and turning. We both ended up being kicked in the face a few times. He also woke up about 3am and had some nurofen for his sore bottom. Poor little buggar. We decided we would give him his Easter Egg at lunch to save a big mess in the car; we were packed up quite quickly and were on the road by 8.30am.
Kelley drove the first 2 hours to Kimba, then Neil took over and drove to Port Augusta. Along the way, while Kelley was asleep again, we drove past an emu that was right on the shoulder of the road, Neil saw it, but Kelley missed it. A little bit later on, with Kelley still sleeping, up ahead was a group of crows on the road. This was nothing unusual however as Neil approached the group 2 birds didn’t fly away. As they stood up, Neil realised they were 2 big wedge tail eagles. He had to swerve over the other lane to avoid them. They are magnificent birds, and just so big. The car has been driving funny for a few days now. It’s like it has lost its guts. Our foot will be flat to the floor and it often struggles to go over 60 or 70 k/h. At first we thought we were heading into a headwind, but now Neil thinks it may be something more. We pulled in for some petrol at Port Augusta and then to Woollies to grab some more supplies. We had sandwiches in the park for lunch. A guy pulled up in his AP5 Valiant. He had seen our car parked when he crossed the bridge and went home and got his valiant and drove down to see us. He was a bit rough but overall a nice guy. We forgot to give William his Easter egg and figured we would do it tonight. Neil had a quick look at the engine while we were stopped, so he drove again as we were heading towards the ranges that led us to Peterborough.
Luckily he was driving as the car was very hard to drive and we had to pull over halfway up the range. The car was very hot. We got to the top and even once we came down the other side, the car was still struggling to sit on anything more that 60kms/hour. We pulled up in a rest area and Neil had a better look at the car. He changed the fuel filter again, but was doubtful this was the problem. He thought the timing may be out as it felt like compression had been lost. We drove, slowly but surely through to Peterborough. William was very excited to see the train at the welcome sign into town, as he had missed them when we drove through a few weeks ago as he was asleep. We found the Caravan Park and booked in for the night. It is a very nice park, with clean amenities and nice big sites. We were surprised to see another S series here; they were staying in one of the cabins. It ended up being the people from Victoria who had hit the Kangaroo on their way over to Perth. Neil was soon chatting to them, hoping they would have a timing light, they didn’t but said the manager of the park was into the Variety Club Rally’s and may be able to help us out. Neil got a timing light off him and soon the other valiant people were over helping Neil sort out the car. The guy in the caravan next to us used to be a mechanic so between them all they all had a fair idea of what they thought was happening. The valiant guy (David Brown who was also a ex mechanic) thought that the valve clearences were out so Neil took the tappet cover off and Davidchecked them with his feeler gauges. Luckily he had the tools to help out and guided Neil through what he needed to do. They adjusted what they needed to and the car sounded like it was running better already. We are very lucky to have pulled up here for the night and have the support of all the people here. We had dinner and then Neil and William headed off for a shower. Once William was in bed we realised we hadn’t given him his Easter egg. We have to be the worst parents! We promised we’ll give it to him tomorrow. Luckily there isn’t another kid here to remind him about it. The train museum puts on a Lights and Sounds show with the trains of a night time, but by the time Neil fixed the car and we had dinner it was too late to go unfortunately. Plus, it was pretty cold and William was very tired. We were very happy to have a shower for the first time in 4 days, Kelley even had a 20 minute showered she enjoyed it so much.
We have put the heater on in the tent tonight as it is quite cold and we may as well take advantage of the powered site. Hopefully we all get a good sleep as we’ve had a few rough nights with William.
We are going to look around in the morning at the train stuff here in town and hopefully head off for Broken Hill after lunch and stay there the night.