Tuesday, 26 May
Yesterday, on the way back from Wentworth, we noticed that the air conditioner was not working. It was blowing air, but not cold air. Using her IPad skills and a nice piece of map reading, my clever communications officer was able to pilot me straight to the Mildura Hyundai dealer. They were not able to help me at that late stage of the day. So I went back this morning before pulling out for Burra. They got straight to work and before long told me that the AC had lost its gas and must have a leak. Unfortunately, they did not have the necessary nitrogen to pressure test it and find the leak. So they sent me to an automotive AC specialist who was also able to look at the car immediately. He discovered that the AC was charged with gas and that there were no leaks. However, he was sure that the problem was the compressor. Basically, it had stopped working and had to be replaced. So, back I went to Hyundai with the news.
This is where things got a bit crazy. Apparently, the recent heavy storms in Sydney wrecked the Hyundai Australian spare parts warehouse. As a result, at the moment, there is not one Hyundai Santa Fe AC compressor availble in the country. Dealers are able to order them from Korea but Hyundai cannot give them a delivery date. So all we can do is get the dealer in Alice Springs to order one in the hope that it gets delivered by the time we get there on 19 June. Given that some dealers have already been waiting for their orders for a fortnight or more, I don't like our chances. Anyway, we will contact them tomorrow and hope for the best. Somehow, I think we are going to be driving to Darwin with the back passenger window down.
So, we set off for Burra about 330 kms away. The route took us first to Renmark, another fruit and wine town on the Murray but this time in South Australia. This part of the trip takes place on the Sturt Highway. The road was quite good also not as good as it could have been. The country side varied from orchards and vineyards, to some broader Mallee wheat properties to natural bushland in the Sunset country.
Once we crossed the border into South Australia, the road surface improved markedly. Another border experience was the fruit and vegetable inspection point. Here we had our caravan inspected to make sure we were not carrying any fruit or vegetables. This is done to stop any pest or infections crossing the border and ruining the very valuable SA horticultural industry.
After we passed through Renmark we turned off the Sturt Highway onto the Morgan Rd. Oh dear!! This is a much rougher road than the highway. It was a case of slowing down to about 85 kph to make sure we didn't shake the caravan to pieces. Just to make it a bit worse the scenery was very monotonous.
Finally we pulled into Morgan and had a pie and pasty for lunch at a little bakery. After this very welcome pit stop we turned onto the Burra Rd and immediately things got a bit better. The road is much better, just as good as the good part of the Sturt Highway. We also noticed, way in the distance, a line of low hills, the first hills we had seen since leaving southern New South Wales. About 20 kms from Burra, The monotonous blue bush country gave way to low rolling hills and attractive green paddocks grazing a lot of brown sheep.
We pulled into the Burra caravan park at about 3.30. This is a very small, council run park. The sites are quite wide with plenty of room for the van, car and annexe, if you have one. The facilities are not large but are in good repair.
We are both feeling quite tired after this eventful day and so I am sure we will have an early night. Tomorrow, we will go over the little creek that runs behind the caravan park and explore the town. No photos today, I'm afraid but hopefully, we will have some tomorrow.
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