As we always say, travelling makes you stronger 🙂 One of the things we love about road trips is, that it always brings unusual experiences and situations. One of them happened to us in the middle of the Outback…  

Imagine driving through the never ending roads of the Outback where you can drive for hours without seeing any other car. We had just crossed the borders between Queensland and Northern Australia when we hit the 10 000 km on a speedo. So far our campervan was running perfectly well without any problem. Just when we were about entering the Kakadu national park, we heard the weird noise coming from our front wheel for the first time. This weird, grinding noise lasted for about 2 minutes and then it suddenly stopped. Little bit concerned we stopped the car and observed the wheel. But because we did not see anything suspicious and nothing was leaking, we decided to continue.

For those who do not know anything about Australia, Kakadu national park is one of the biggest and most remote parks in Australia. It is located in the northern part of Northern territory and it is one of the most famous places in the whole Australia. You could literary walk days to try find a phone reception, and you would not find it, because there is literary none

At the end of the day after we had camped in the campsite, we decided to check the wheel once again. The strange noise was still bothering us, as we thought a dust might get stuck in the wheel. Therefore, at the camp we found a hose and we cleaned the wheel with a pressured waterflow. After cleaning the wheel, we even did a test drive around camp. But when the noise did not come back, we happily decided to continue in our journey. Oh how naive were we?

Next day we continued driving into the heart of Kakadu park and suddenly out of nowhere the grinding noise came back. But this time a little bit louder. Again, we stopped, checked the wheel and tried to call to our rental agency, but guess what? No phone reception at all.

Our camp was still almost 50 km in front of us. So we decided to go straight to the camp and try to call to our rental company from there. But the campervan obviously had his own plans.

When we turned back on the main road, the squeaky noise came back, only this time so loud that we almost jumped through the roof. Immediately, the car started to shake and the wheel screamed. We pulled out the campervan on the side of the main road and stopped. And that was it.

When we wanted to start engine again, the engine was screaming like hell, and when we tried to turn the wheels left or right, nothing happened. The wheels just did not move. This is it, that is how we broke down in one of the most remote area in Australia, without any phone reception. When you hear stories from Ozzies about breaking down in Outback, you usually laugh and think that this can never happen to you. But oh, it can 🙂

Trying to remember all those rules you should follow when break down, we were planning for the worst. Anyway, in about an hour the first car was approaching us. Thankfully, the driver stopped and asked if we needed help. Which is so typical for Australians. If someone breaks down, almost everyone stops and tries to be as helpful as they can, because they simply know, that it can happen to them too.

These nice passengers from New Zealand offered us to take Roman to the nearest place with a phone reception to call for help. Just if you are curious, the nearest place with a phone reception was about 20 kilometres away. So it would be stupid to think, that you can just walk until you find any reception. That is how backpackers die in Australia 🙂

While I was waiting with our broken car on the side of the road, few other people stop to ask if I need help or any assistance. What a great people, right?

After an hour, those New Zealanders were so kind, that they brought Roman back after he made a phone call. Did I mention that all this happen on Saturday? Therefore, there was no one in our rental agency to pick up the phone and assist us. So we had to call a tow truck by ourself and then contact the insurance company, which in our case was NRMA (roadside assistance company).

We waited another two hours, before the tow truck came for us. NRMA decided to tow truck us to the nearest city, which happened to be the main city of Kakadu national park, Jabiru.

Honestly, times like these will make you appreciate the price you had paid for the full insurance. After a quick phone call with NRMA, they booked us into a hotel in Jabiru and took care of everything. The only problem was, that there was a very limited amount of hotels in Jabiru. Except one, all of them were fully booked. So at the end of the day, we were booked into a very luxurious cabin, just because it was the only cabin left vacant. If we would not have the insurance, a night in this hotel would cost us 160 AUD.   

After a quick talk with the mechanic that towed truck our car, we started to get worried. He could not tell for sure, but from his experience his guess was that the CV joint broke down. He also assumed that repair like this would not be able to do in Kakadu park because of the lack of spare parts. His predictions turned to be right.

Meanwhile NRMA had contacted our rental agency, so they contacted us. They practically told us to wait till Monday, that they will get back to us as soon as they know how to fix our car.

The only problem was, that we had already booked and fully paid the very famous Crocosaurus Cove adventure in Darwin for Tuesday. The issue was not just that we had already paid for it, but that we were not able to postponed it. The Crocosaurus Cove was fully booked out for two weeks to come.

So we faced a dilemma. This adventure, the Crocosaurus Cove, was the major one that we wanted to experience while traveling around Australia. And now we faced the reality that we might not be able to make it on time. And we just could not wait in Darwin for another two weeks. That is when NRMA came to the rescue, again.

I tried to call NRMA again and explained them the whole situation and our concerns that will not be able to make it on time to Darwin. Instead of refusing to help us, NRMA put our interests as their priority. They told us that if we would be able to find a bus heading for Darwin, they will pay for it. And on top of that they would find and pay for the hotel in Darwin.

Just a note – NRMA did not do it just because they are nice, but because it was in their best interest too. I mean, if we would have missed that adventure, NRMA would have to reimburse the full price as a part of the insurance. So, even for NRMA, it was more convenient and cheaper to help us to get to Darwin on time.

You know you are in the middle of nowhere when you can not find any public transportation. We were very lucky, because as we had found out, there was just one bus heading to Darwin that weekend. The next bus was leaving on Wednesday afternoon, which would had been too late for us. So NRMA arranged tickets for us and on Sunday afternoon, we headed towards Darwin. Leaving behind our campervan with almost all our belongings.

Also, NRMA promised to found an accommodation in Darwin for us. But it was not as smooth as we hoped. We arrived in Darwin in the evening, but we had not hear from NRMA yet. We called few times, but no one answered. So we found ourself sitting on the road, with our small backpack, trying to figure out what to do. After a while, NRMA finally called and arranged a hotel for us. The hotel they had arranged for us cost 200 AUD a night which still was one of the cheapest ones considering it was a high season in Darwin.

On Monday morning, our rental agency called us that they send a tow truck to pick up our campervan. Also, they told us that someone would call us as soon as the car would arrive in Darwin. We waited the whole day, but no one called. We became a little more concerned and suspicious, because all our belongings were in the car.

At 6 o’clock in the afternoon my patience ran out, so I called to found out what was happening. I will never ever forget the call. The lady that picked up the phone was trying to be very nice, but practically she told me: “Mam, I don´t know how to say it, but the tow truck that was carrying your campervan broke down, and it needs to be towed truck itself.” I was stunned. First with anger, but after few seconds with laughter. Like what are the odds that something like this happen?

So long story short, we had to wait in Darwin for another 3 days, because of the repair of the campervan. The mechanic in Jabiru was right. The CV joint on front left wheel broke down. And because there were no spare parts in Darwin, they had to order it from Cairns. That is why it took so long. Meanwhile, NRMA with agreement with our rental agency offered us to hire another car for us. So we do not have to wait in Darwin and at least we can travel around.

As the saying is:  Every cloud has a silver lining . The spare car they had rented to us, was 4WD car. Thanks to it we were able to explore the surrounding of Darwin, which we would never be able to do with our campervan. Our campervan was not allowed to be driven on unsealed roads. We even decided to go back to Kakadu, except now, with our new 4WD we could drive on unsealed roads, which was more fun.

At the end, the car was fixed after long 6 days of waiting and ready to continue our journey to Western Australia.