We broke our Landcruiser in Kakadu
The bolt that holds the trailing arm, the side rail to the chassis has fallen out. We discovered this after a large bang and 31km of corrugations to go and a days drive to a mechanic … on the weekend.
The missing bolt situation.
The solution: ratchet strap the trailing arm, side rail & chasis together & up and over the bonnet … then drive slow … like REAL slow. Low range 1st and 2nd gear kind of slow out of here.
Prepping Pumba for a long slow drive out of here
5.5hrs of driving we pulled up, 9pm. Time to call it for the night. Rest & reassess in the morning.
9th August – Fixing Pumba Day 1
Sunrise. Google. Mechanic in Pine Creek closed on the weekend. Means Katherine, 95km away, highway kms.
Well we have insurance, lets call and see if we are covered. An hour on the phone … many frustrating miscommunications later, nope it will cost us $1600 in excess for the tow.
Confused and frustrated by insurance
Next? Call the mechanic in Katherine, if we get there before midday he can identify and get the bolt before the shops shut.
Our options:
a. Follow Ben's advise to grab a bolt from out tow hitch, loosen bolts to realign (our now out of line Trailing arm) & re-tighten to help strengthen to get to Katherine
b. Not waste the time and continue on our ratchet situation (that was holding up) to get to Katherine in time (like only just in time … maybe 30 mins to spare)
We went for option b, hoping that it meant Pumba was fixed today.
Crawling along the highway, NT 130km highway, at 50kms/hr = not happy people. Thank god for the UHF. Those we let know over the UHF were understanding and wished us the best. After a slow few hours into Katherine, we arrived.
We were greeted by a very happy and friendly guy, Tonic. He just loved that Astrid was French and had amazing English. He was great, took the time to explain to us our situation properly. Well that and fell in love with Pumba, trying to work out how he could buy it. Although a really positive interaction, our situation: no one in Katherine has the bolt. It has to come from Sydney. 1 week wait. 1 week of sitting around Katherine, unable to drive. Bummer.
1pm, still no breakfast, lets eat and digest what to do next…
Then plan, Astrid asked the work aways in the area and Ally (part of the Instagram community we have met on the road) if anyone has anywhere we can stay for a week. No luck. Katherine is not exactly the safest town but we didn’t have much choice. Not wanting to drive Pumba too far (or too much) in his state, we parked up at the end of a street in an industrial estate. It’s the weekend, its quiet.
Come 6pm, a guy came by on his buggy with his dog “you aren’t broken down are you?” “yeah we are actually”. Off the buggy and working out how he could help, phone calls to his mates on the hunt for a spare bolt. Turns out a mate in Darwin has one, he can ship it down Monday, be here Tuesday.
Tom on the phone sourcing a bolt for us
Next thing we are under the car, moving bolts around to see if we could make Pumba safely drivable till then. The current result: a galvanised bolt is in to help us get around town while we wait.
Meet Tom. Tom gave an hour of his Saturday evening to help us. Thank you!!! And his dog is called Makita, he is a big smooch and spent his time getting as much love off Astrid as he could.
Astrid & Makita
Tonight, its quiet, we will stay parked up in the industrial estate until we need to find somewhere different.
10th August – Fixing Pumba Day 2
Again, not the day we expected.
Pumba waiting for repairs
Our little hideaway was a win. No noise, no one bothered us. Even better, cool nights/mornings are back.
Todays plan: grocery shop, then return to our hideaway to wait for the new bolt to arrive. Plans changed. While at the counter in Wooly’s, Tom called.
Bec on the phone with Tom
He got a hold of a bolt for us, said we could come around the shed and he will fit it for us. Not only did he help us out yesterday he called around his mates this morning and found us a bolt in town. So grateful for Tom, means now we can hit the road today … or tomorrow. Just got to sit and work out our new plan.
After looking at our new time schedule the plan is: stick around here today, leave for Katherine Gorge tomorrow then make our way to the Western Lost City.
Driving through town we realised how lucky we were to find a quiet safe spot in town. Lots of drinking Aboriginals in the street. Our only visitor while parked up: Tom. He popped over for a chat & to show us his other dog. On one hand he has huge Makita & then cute little pickle (a jack russel x pug). A dog each for Astrid and I 😂
So like that a week long wait turned into just 2 days, thanks to Tom. His running around to find us a bolt (that the mechanic couldn’t) meant that not only could we leave earlier, it saved us for paying a couple of hundred $ at the mechanic.
Astrid, Bec and Tom
Tom. Thank you. Thank you for using your free time on the weekend to help us and get us back on the road. Even more for looking out for us in a town that is known for not being safest. Thank you!