The temperature was 39c at 11:00am, the terrain was mountainous, the road was sealed with many straights and hairpin curves, my location was 60km south of Walcha NSW on Thunderbolts way and I was headed to Armidale.
Up to that point the '89 Camry station wagon was performing well for a vehicle with close to 650,000km on the clock, however the last few assents on this trip did see the temperature gauge head towards 'H' causing me to compromise between a lower speed and sufficient air flow through the radiator.
The tactic worked for the most part although upon reaching the top of one of the steepest sections I needed to pull over at a rest area to investigate a hissing noise coming from the engine, plus I needed a whizz.
Steam was issuing forth from the head and I had lost a bit of coolant, after topping up the radiator and replenishment of my water supply, I once more headed into the heat haze of that hot summers day knowing there were a few more sections of steep climbs between me and the next town.
On one of those climbs the enginge started to "miss" badly so I pulled over, cleaned the distributor cap of grease and grime to stop the moisture from the steam conducting the ignition spark to earth and topped up the radiator once more.
Back in the drivers seat all was well, if you disregard the sweat soaked clothes, grubby hands and a growing sense of dread that I might not make it to Walcha let alone Armidale, the engine was running again, smoothly too, so I continued on for another 10km whereupon I came across one more assent, one in which the old Camry started to "miss" again, to tell the truth I was now just hoping I would make it to the top of the next rise where there was some shade and a place to pull completely off the road, unfortunately that wasn't to be, right where you don't want to break down, I did, where I could only get the car 3/4 part off road, no shade and no more water, either in my bottle or in the radiator as it was running back down the hill from the now, large crack in the head.
A small modicum of panic set in, there was no mobile phone reception and hadn't been for quite some time, my only choice was to wave down a passing motorist. The first vehicle to pass gave me a wave but did not stop, thanks dude! The second vehicle did stop and gave me a lift to Walcha 60km on, I decided at that point to experience the situation rather than be the situation, this gave me a calmer outlook and patience to go through the ensuing process. My lift dropped me off at the local NRMA (Nation Roads and Motorist Association) office of which I was a member with premium cover. I waited 45 minutes for the tilt tray truck to return from a job, jumped aboard and went the 60km to my car, loaded it on the truck and returned to the depot in Walcha (Mountain Motors). After the car was assessed as deceased unless I had 3 to $4,000 to spend on resurrection I enacted my Premium care package, taking the option of a hire car for 7 days.
The closes Avis office was at Armidale airport, about 80km's away, to get there I had only one option, that was to wait for the late afternoon goods courier to pick me up and take me with him on his run up to Armidale, where fortunately for me his last stop was the airport.
Three days later I returned to Walcha in the hire car and retrieved my belongings as well as the plates from the Camry, arranged for the vehicle to be crushed with the next car crusher visit and bid my farewell to the great bunch of people who helped me
How much did all this cost me? I think it came to $68.00 in total, the towing, the hire care the coffee and the good sevice were part of my roadside assistance package, the car disposal was done by Mountain motors for free 'cause that's the way things are done in country Australia.
The other cost of course is the replacement car I now needed to buy but that's another story for another time.
The video below is a trip 3 months prior along the same route in the Camry, both trips were to pick up my son Mitchell from Armidale University....at 3:20 minutes you will see the rest area where I first detected to problem, at 4:20 is the town of Walcha, 4:44 see's us at the airport where I picked up the hire car, 5:20 is my arrival at the destination then return.
Well that was the plan this time too!