FRIDAY 3 JULY     TAYLORS BEACH

I didn’t sleep well last night. Sometime, during my waking periods, I became aware that the fridge was not behaving properly. Then, of course, I couldn’t sleep, but kept listening to it. Seemed to me that it was running for far too long, then starting up again far too quickly – even making allowances for the heat.

In the morning, John agreed with me. Naturally, it was a public holiday today in Ingham, for the Show. Rather than wait until Monday to try to find someone who might be able to deal with it, he started phoning refrigeration  places in Townsville. One gave him the name of a place that would work on our type of fridge. John booked it in for Monday.

We are going back to bloody Townsville!

He also managed to get us into the Woodlands Caravan Park – for EIGHT days! It was the V8 Super Car Race period and they told him it was the last spot they had.

I hadn’t envisaged going back there at all, let alone for so long. But I guessed, just like last time, it allowed plenty of time for the repair work and, if I was being uncharitable, for lots of bowls.

I phoned Cardwell and cancelled my bookings. The tour company said they would hold the deposit money I’d paid by card, against a future Hinchinbrook trip. Right now, that possibility seemed a tad on the optimistic side, given the way this trip was going!

I did not want to do any driving trips today, having decided to turn the fridge on and off manually. There was too much cold stuff in there to fit in the outside Chescold, and I really didn’t want to lose my frozen seafood and meat, if it could be helped.

The fridge was very iced up – probably from all that extra running, so I defrosted it. Didn’t make much difference.

I reminded John that we had a spare thermostat, left from 2007, when we’d bought one and didn’t need it. He’d forgotten all about that, but after a search, found it in “his” cupboard of bits and pieces. He phoned the Melbourne dealer in Vitrifrigo parts and ordered a new fan too, to be sent up to us in Townsville, asap.

John drove into Halifax, where shops were still open, and bought some glue. He wanted to do some repair patching to the flyscreen meshes on the poptop openings. Insects like moths and flies had, over time, gotten into the van, then died trying to get out the screened top openings. The bodies fell down to where the fixed mesh met the canvas zip-up flap. Then some birds have thought they’d spied an easy feed, and pecked holes in the mesh from outside! John cut little squares of plastic mesh that he carried for this purpose, and glued them over the holes. Not particularly pretty, but effective – and needed in these areas of midges.

 I read, sewed, operated the fridge, then cooked barra in beer batter for tea. Very good it was, too.