November 25th-27th, 2011- Carnarvon- Wintersun Caravan Park- Top Tourist

Yes you are reading correctly; we are back in Carnarvon although this time we are staying in a cabin.

We headed off before 8AM for Denham on Friday morning. Made it about 120KM South when our front left caravan wheel blew off the caravan. I don't just mean a tyre blowout; the whole bloody wheel came off the axle. Sheered off, hit the side of our caravan, then flew across the highway in front of Di and Terry who were following us. Luckily I was able to safely maneuver the van off the road and no one was hit by the flying wheel. That's the limit on the good news however. As you can see below the caravan was not going any further on its own and considerable damage has been incurred to our caravan.

As there was no Telstra mobile coverage we left the girls with the caravan while Terry took me 5KM further south to the Wooramel Roadhouse. No mechanic or mobile coverage there either. At least there was a Pay Phone so was able to contact NRMA. Eventually got routed to a special area of NRMA that deals with caravans and people with Premium Coverage. They arranged for a tow truck to come from Carnarvon and called me back on the Roadhouse phone to advise it would arrive around noon. Terry came back and picked me up and we waited by the side of the road for a couple of hours until Tow Truck arrived. We all got sunburned as we weren't prepared. Terry and I nicknamed the Tow Truck driver Flash as he didn't do anything very quickly. The first time he loaded the caravan was quite difficult because of the angle the caravan was parked on. In the end he couldn't pull the caravan up off the ground safely as looked close to tipping.

Eventually got the caravan back off the truck, which was harder than it sounds and caused some more damage to the caravan (hand brake assembly & spare tyre). I then reconnected Pajero and backed caravan up to a more level location. Second attempt from flat ground worked well and much more quickly. As you can see the truck was just big enough and the load looked quite precarious.

We drove back to Carnarvon, contacted NRMA Premium Service again, and got ourselves booked into an ensuite cabin at the Wintersun. It is nice and clean and well equipped. We won't know ourselves having a full kitchen, with a working fridge, and a big spacious bathroom. We then went to Carnarvon Auto Service and Towing to meet with the owner. We picked up some things from the caravan, discovered the door is damaged, and some breakage inside as well. Only cupboard that opened had to be the crockery, so broken plates and cups, that managed to go everywhere. Did a quick clean and grabbed our necessities, before heading back to caravan park. Terry, the owner promised he will have a look at Saturday before lunch so we can make further plans.

Lots of phone calls with NRMA, QBE Insurance, and Carnarvon Auto Service on Saturday. Bad news as Terry says the damage is too serious for him to work on in his shop and needs to be sent to a caravan repair facility in Geraldton. We had hoped for a temporary fix so we could proceed on our own and have the final repairs done in Geraldton. That being said it will be safer this way and probably better having one place look after all the repairs. NRMA Premium Service has arranged for him to tow it the 470KM South to Geraldton and for our extra two nights accommodation in Carnarvon, and our first night in Geraldton. NRMA has been absolutely fantastic and I would recommend their premium service to anyone. Fast, friendly, professional service! The downside is that the tow to Geraldton (over $2200) will mean we max out our yearly benefit of $3000 on this one incident. No more NRMA benefits until after we renew next November.

Saturday afternoon we took a short drive around Carnarvon downtown again. Bought some Christmas cards and drove around the park area and new housing estate again. We stopped by our caravan and picked up some more things as won't see it again until late Monday afternoon.

We enjoyed a swim and a bit of a relaxing afternoon. Lots of phone calls updating family members of our situation. We have been advised by the mechanic, Gary Holman, and Gary Grant that it looks like the bearings have seized on that wheel. Would appear to have not be serviced properly which is disappointing as we only had the bearings redone in Broome in October.

Sunday we will do some relaxing and possibly have a picnic lunch down at the water front. Sandra will probably do some laundry and I will make sure the car is ready to go early Monday morning.
While we were both a bit shaken up and pissed off by this whole incident we are both well and being looked after well by NRMA. Hope we have some good news to share with you soon from Geraldton.
Cheers!

Update:

We did in fact do some sightseeing on Sunday at the waterfront. We did a short walk across the old tram bridge. Not in very good condition but better than the One Mile Jetty. Got a few pictures of probably the most picturesque area of Carnarvon that we saw. Very windy so we passed on the picnic lunch and had back at the Chalet.