WEDNESDAY 26 AUGUST     CHARLEVILLE

It was a pleasant day – a bit on the hot side.

After breakfast, drove into Charleville. John bought oil to top up the diff. He had phoned the bad mechanic from home, for advice – though that might be of dubious value. The supposed expert reckoned that Defender wheels don’t break. Well….we were carrying evidence to the contrary on the spare wheel holder……

John decided not to try getting the tyre fixed here, because the split wheel would only cause the same problem again. We had the caravan spare that could be used, if needed – which was why we’d originally had the van built with Defender wheels. Surely we couldn’t be that unlucky? There was certainly no point in trying to get a new wheel for Truck here.

Just lazed around at camp for the rest of the day. I took back everything I’d previously said about John in “go home” mode – this time was a pleasant exception.

Hooked Truck back up to van. We also seemed to have an oil drip from the steering box area. Poor old Truck was now  over thirteen years old, and had done over quarter of a million kms. Getting old…..

Had happy hour with the interesting neighbours.

As often happens in these parts, the sunset was brilliant.