The trouble with Burnie 30/5/10

Burnie didn't start. Not even a little bit. Start ya bastard was not strong enough and neither were all of the other considerably more forceful things we said to Burnie. Thank goodness for RAC. The guy came out on a Sunday and saved us. Then we had to camp in the park in town (on a hill cause a push start is the only way to get the $%&* thing going at the moment). It's now pouring again and Burnie is at Repco. It was not my intention for this blog to be about automotive repairs but I guess that's where this vacation is taking us!


After we took Burnie to the mechanic, we went to the local microbrewery. We also spent some time at the local park drinking beer and eating potato chips. After assessing the van, the mechanic's helpful comments included: “Everything we touch falls apart”, “You might as well rip up $20 bills and throw them out the window as you drive” and “Get yourself a good bottle of wine and get drunk so you can come to terms with your situation”. Interesting since the RAC guy who saved us when we were stuck the day before said we should just need a tune up and then all would probably be good and that we can always pop the clutch with a push start. So, we camped behind the Repco (security showed up twice and shined their light into our van – at 1am and 3am) so that they could do more work if the van still didn't start. The next morning, the van started..... eventually. We've decided to limp the van to Perth (where we hope to either sell it to a keen mechanic or for scrap) while seeing things and parking on hills on the way.