Thierings on Tour

Chris was very apprehensive this morning about driving the remaining (rough) 250kms back to Mataranka with the broken CV shaft boot. He wrapped it as best as he could to stop further grease from escaping, but it was going to be a stressful drive.

After speaking with the mobile mechanic Jorden it turned out that he was in Katherine heading to Mataranka today, which meant calling around for parts has an expanded search area. Luckily the universe looked after us and there was one in Katherine that Jorden kindly agreed to pick up and drive down.

There were plenty of animals on the road again to make it more interesting and the girls loved seeing wild water buffalo for the first time along the road.

We made it slowly along the road and doing the best on the rocks, corrugation and potholes/dips that threaten to break and shake the car & van further.

I don’t think either of us have been that grateful to see bitumen before once we finally got close to Mataranka…

We quickly stopped at the shops (most alcohol sales in this part of the NT start at 2pm so you have to be strategic about when you go past shops). I even towed the van a whole of 300m to move it from one car park to another while Chris ran to the shops. It was terrifying 😂

Then it was on to Mataranka Homestead to stay near the thermal pools while Chris and Jorden worked on the car again. 
The big girls were excited to have a swim, while Scarly was a bit apprehensive jumping in at first. She enjoyed it so much once she was in the water though! The pools were lovely and warm, although a bit crowded in the afternoon.

Chris and Jorden got everything fixed and even did some preventative work for good measure to stop this happening again, hopefully. That meant the girls got to take Chris down for another dip in the pools.

Our dinner plans fell through as it turned out none of the meat we had planned to eat had defrosted, so it was an impromptu dinner out and the opportunity for the girls to enjoy some more dancing to country music.

Kms travelled – 260