Things wot went wrong!

Some small and some not-so-small things that went wrong on our recent trip - it's going to be a long list!

• Camper trailer - piano hinge on one our cupboards came 3/4 of the way out on our 2nd or 3rd day and had to be gently coaxed back in
• the backing plate on the rear disc broke and had to be removed
• the back window on the rangie kept coming open on the dirt roads, so we had to tape it shut
  
• we sprung a leak in our new jerry can & lost some petrol
  
• the suspension on the camper went skewiff, so the wheels had to come off and the boys fixed that in the middle of the desert on the way to Boulia
• we put a hole through our water jerry can, which ended up being thrown away
• the water tank in our camper started leaking, and we lost all our water, so had to buy new spigots and stuff to fix it in Hughenden
• our poor old laptop gave up the ghost on this trip, and had to be replaced by our new one for navigation
• the inverter stopped charging the batteries for the laptop, mobiles and anything else we put into it
• car wouldn't stay locked, and the alarm kept going off
  
• my mobile phone battery gave up the ghost, so I had no phone for the last 2 weeks of the trip
• Trev's hotmail got hacked, and everyone in his contact list got scam emails, as well as posting the scam to this blog
• we got to Gilberton, only to find that we couldn't stay at the common area on the river, (bitch on a quad) so we didn't come home dripping in gold
  
• the fuel pump in the Rangie conked out, and we had to get a new one brought in from Townsville - the boys had to remove the fuel tank, put in the new pump, then put the tank back in at Greenvale Caravan Park
• camper batteries kept going flat (couldn't see to play cards!) - tried to recharge them & found battery charger was broken
• camper fridge stopped working - had to be taken out, given a damn good shake, jets were cleaned with a lock of my lovely hair, and it started working again
  
• from Fletcher Crossing we had nothing but rain and miserable days - Charters Towers had 60ml of rain in 2 days, then there were wild weather alerts for Fraser Island (where we had planned to stay for 3 days), so that was cancelled
• flat tyre due to a damaged valve - had to be fixed at Rockhampton
  
• we got a message on the Thursday from one of Trev's friends saying that he had a Comcar interview the following Monday, so after much to-ing and fro-ing with a certain recruitment company, Trev ended with an interview on the Tuesday, so we had to head for home 3 weeks earlier than planned.

And that was just us - Les had problems with fuses on his car and his gas cooker got sick, Bill's caravan door lock broke, and he had to buy a new one and fix it, John had problems with transferring diesel from his long-range tank to his normal tank, then had problems with radiator and engine (cost him $700 to get fixed at Newman), Alan destroyed a tyre, then poor Chris had a fall and broke her wrist in 2 places (she's currently flying to Perth to get it fixed, then rejoining the others). And Kay & Ian (who were supposed to meet us at Boulia) never even started this trip, as they had major problems with their new engine.

So, all in all, it's been an interesting experience. Will have to do it again some time - minus all these problems, hopefully.