NOPE

Camped up in Mareeba, Queensland for a few weeks gets a bit boring so we decided to check out Cooktown on the weekend. Weekend shenanigans are great if everything goes to plan. Our plan was to set of from Mareeba on a Saturday morning and take a leisurely drive to Cooktown for the weekend.

Hitching up the caravan was easy enough, we even put a brand new tyre on it as the old one looked a bit worse for wear. Cooktown is only 265 kilometres from where we were so no big drama getting there... a 530 kilometer round-trip however, didn't eventuate.

The scenery is breathtakingly beautiful, mountains on our right poking into the clear blue sky. The odd kangaroo dodging across the PDR (Peninsula Development Road) and few stray cattle which was a huge relief. I so don't like stray cattle on any road, but it is what it is... so we drive slow and steady... you know, being semi-grey nomads ourselves.

First you go through Mount Molloy, a beautiful little township with the biggest burgers ever, a great pub with icy cold beer, and a good bunch of people to chat to. From there you head towards Mount Carbine... blink and you've missed it, and onwards to James Earl Lookout where you're rewarded with spectacular views of the start to Cape York.

Leaving the lookout is when things went belly-up! 3 kilometres down the steep slopes and something went plonk plonk plonk... we both said at the same time: "What's that noise?"

Then a strange sight, like something from 'Alice in Wonderland'.... this tyre comes bouncing past the drivers door, down the road, hopping through some mangled sign posts, and careens off into the never-ending scrub.

Scraping, clanging, and hissing sounds combined with 'not so choice language' before we came to a grinding stop.

Oops!

We ended up dragging our one-tyre contraption into the gutter, ripping up the bitumen in the process. With sweat trickling down our face, hands clenched around steering wheel, and heart in our mouth we sighed with relief once fully stopped and engine turned off.

The caravan is just over a year old, brand new tyres, full off-road little rig. I endearingly call it my 'Little Cockroach'

Well this little roach got kind-of squashed and lopsided.

I'm going to rename my Ezytrail to... EzyFrail just a matter of some white automotive paint through the letter T.... and a new brand of caravan will be born.

Anyway, hubby has recovered and bolts down the road and off into the scrub yelling something about a $1000 tyre not getting away this easy. After 27 minutes he comes back beaming with pride 'Got Her' he yells.

Great!

So check this out! Nothing wrong with the tyre, nothing wrong with the rim, bolts not sheared off.. all intact.

We ended up unhitching the caravan from the car and I left hubby behind because there was zero reception of course! Why does mobile phone reception always fail us when we need it? I'm back-tracking to James Earl Lookout where reception is excellent and call for help from RACQ, and from any sympathetic ear willing to sacrifice their weekend time listening to my predicament.

Tow truck organised, only 3 hour wait which is amazing considering our location. Finally we creak back into Mareeba in the dead of the night, snatch strap and pull the limpy EzyFrail off the tow truck tray and somehow managed to Jack it up and block it up for support. Our kangaroo hopping tyre also bounces of the truck's tray and rolls into some stupid ditch. It can stay there until daylight!

The mechanic came out the next day to gloat over our misfortune and to present us with the bill. Never mind... he'll do a good job and will replace those chinese bearings with some good quality snazzy ones. Thanks mate 👍

Will we attempt Cooktown again... Nope, nope, nope. Actually that's the name of a horror movie... Nope. It was more like our personal horror weekend, and we were the star attraction.

Ironically the next weekend, on a Saturday night we went to Mareeba Drive-In and guess what was playing?