Is it still called a mercy dash at sixty-five kilometres per hour?

Claude has been trying to do me in again. Started playing up on the Roper Bar- Borroloola road and hasn't let up since. Tried to ignore the spoilt bastard but in the end had to cave in and take the detour from Borroloola to Mt Isa via Barkly Highway at a heady 65 klicks (no power), rather than through the Gulf Country as I'd planned. Found a good diesel mechanic in the Isa who isolated it as a broken wire on the electronic throttle motor unit (called a Venturi unit, for the record, and it'll cost you $600 ex-Japan if you want one).  So he gave it a bush band aid and soldered it up for me, but en route to Karumba (ie almost at Karumba) the problem returned. The solder must have broken. Also developed a plumbing problem and a snapped tortion bar! Bloke told me the other day they never break. They suspend bridges off that steel, he said. But not Claude's fat arse, apparently. Anyway, so then I had to detour 700 kms from Normanton back to Cairns, again at 65 klicks per hour, but this time I felt every bump in the road.

So today I took the Venturi unit out again (mechanic in the Isa made me do it out there as well, which proved a good lesson to learn) and got some auto electricians to solder, brace and glue the broken wire so it shouldn't come away again. Tomorrow we're off to the Toyota service agents to see about a few other issues. Still trying to track down a tortion bar in Australia, and if I can't find one I'll have to sell another child and get one ex-Japan. Problem is I've only got one child. Anyone out there got one they'd like me to sell on commission?

At least Cairns is a gentle place to be stuck for a week or a month.

I'll keep you posted. Or maybe not.

Mont