When yer hot, yer HOT!!!
Every year we take a little break in summer and go to the coast for a few days to a week of doing nothing but beachcombing enjoying the sea. I had checked the weather and saw that 40°C was advised for Wednesday. Yeah, we could handle that for a day, no worries. Hmmmm……. big mistake…lol
Left
home early on Tuesday morning early. Slowed down going into the speed limits of the next town and luckily I had my window open as I heard a clunking noise following. I must remember, I must remember, I must remember…….to tighten the wheel-nuts! When I painted the wheels on the trailer I must have forgotten to nip them up…..anyway….no damage.
Down the mountain (
Horrocks Pass) and into the Gutta. So while I was there (and SWMBO was in Woolies) I popped down to my friendly tyre dealer to see if he still had some 16 ply tyres left and he said, Yessssss….. buuuutttttt...... the price has gone up. From $155 to $235…..Cheeeezus!!!!! Anyway got him down to $200ea as is, takeaway including tubes and took the last two.
Tailwind all the way to
Whyalla,
Cowell and Point Gibbon. Hot as hell. My new digital engine temp gauge showed 104.6°C along the way. Found a
campsite right on the beach. Oysters and red wine came soon after. Lesson…never drink red wine before putting the tent up!!!
Very quiet spot. An occasional fisherman drove past for access to the beach. Another couple were camped up on the top of the dune in the
parking area with their Winnebago. Just us, and the seagulls. No mozzies, no sandflies (too plurry hot for them!).
Wednesday. Haven’t been that hot and uncomfortable ever! Temp hit 48°C. What was amazing is that even the side of the truck that was on the offside of the sun was extremely hot to touch. We spent most of the day in the water in shallow pools. The poor dog tried running on one paw at a time across the 30 metres of sand to the waters edge…lol. She soon learned to run the short distance.
The fridge struggled all day to keep our bottled water cool.
Decided that we would stay one more day. Late at night we had a very short storm with heavy lightning, thunder and rain. This morning a hot north wind was blowing at 6am and we changed our minds and decided to pack up and head for
home. T’was a long, hot drive. Had to wait ½ hour and the bottom of
Horrocks Pass for the ole engine to cool down. Still managed 106.7°C over the top in 2nd gear. The un-turboed engine is every forgiving and reliable but doesn’t like hills. A trailer on the end of the tug makes matters worse.
Got
home at 2pm to find the whole town shut down due a transformer failure somewhere in the ETSA electricity
grid(Where is Bonz when you need him?..lol). Luckily our house was still cool enough to have a lie down after all that stress. Power came back on at 5.
Better go and unpack the truck now!
Cheers