The Kiama day tripping crew ...
About 20ks before we hit Kiama's sunny fish-and-chip filled streets we ran into a bit of an adventure which all started with a tictictic under the bonnet ... deciding that the cause was no doubt a loose lid of some kind we decided to press on to Albion Park (where it was hoped we might be able to combine tightening lids with some much needed breakfast at Maccers). Unfortunately for our brilliant plan our car simply stopped working just as we were cresting the hill of that suburb ... coasting to a stop on a handy medium strip a quick peak under the bonnet revealed nice tight lids on all fluids and some rather evil smelling black smoke coming from under the engine ...
Bell takes it easy waiting for Dad to come back from his stroll to the local garage.
Isobel the Explorer uses the time to check out the medium strip and discovers 'grass'!
Isobel supervisors while Lorence and Arif debate whether the tow rope will hold (it did hold, for about a hundred metres! But who needs tow rope when Paul and Arif could just push?!)
An hour and a half, some car seat rearranging and a carless Smith family later and we all made it to Kiama ... Jirhet and Bizzers check out the local attractions.
Hey Dad forget the swings I think I saw some food over there!
Lunch time ... tucking into what most of us thought of as a well deserved lunch. And then we made our second big discovery for the day ... we'd set up our picnic only a few meters from a stage which had suddenly become full of the very vocal followers of an Indian meditation group (being very enthusiastic in their shaking and blowing of various tambourines and woodwind instruments) Just as we'd all decided we'd never enjoyed such terrible dinner music before things got even less enjoyable when they broke into enthusiastic Indian vocals. As we packed up our rice bubble slice and fled the scene we were slightly comforted by the reflection that it really did feel like we were living in a Bollywood movie!
Watermelon mm mmmm!
Well I don't know about you lot but I think this music's great!
Bell joins in the chorus.
Sadly train schedules didn't allow us to enjoy the beach this time round. Since our friends were heading down to Canberra for the rest of the weekend we boarded the train for our 4 hour trip back to Sydney (no, I really have no idea why it takes twice as long as it does to drive, it must be that winding country roads really are faster than straight train tracks!).
There's still plenty of time to stretch the ole legs before the trip begins.
Let me on, let me on!
Let me off, let me off!
"Bye Kiama"
Passing the time ...
A quick postscript on the car. It would seem our rather optimistic assessment of 'a fuse blowing' wasn't quite accurate, no in the end the entire engine actually needed replacing! It seems there was some oil sediment in the bottom of the filter which blocked the cam shaft and caused it to explode, as a result of which molten metal was blown into the engine ... nice! ... comfortingly the garage guy tells us that 1) we could have prevented this from having our car serviced and 2) we could have prevented this by not taking the car on a long trip and 3) we could have prevented this by pulling over when we first heard the suspicious ticking noise from under the bonnet! Always nice to know we're paying out cash through every fault of our own! The good news is the replacement engine is four years younger and 20k ks less travelled.... see there is always a bright side!
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