Sitting on the side of a road half way down a mountain. No Internet. No Phone. No CB radio. No Brakes? We are nomads and are spending 5 months travelling around Tasmania towing our 23ft caravan, but were going nowhere fast. We knew we were past Cradle Mountain as we had passed a turnoff some miles back, but there had been a lot of 25 kph turns and 35 kph turns winding up and down the mountains. It seemed we had passed at least 10 high /low zones and I had been travelling as slowly as we possibly could.
Having stayed at a little town called Waratah the night before we had moved on as this town had been absolutely freezing. We were headed east to warmer territory.
Now when I bought the car in Queensland it was automatic Isuzu MUX and although I have been use to automatic cars I have never towed really heavy loads before the last few months. Driving a rig which had a weight of over 5 ton is quite different and I had been taking things quite slowly doing a maximum of 90kms and very slow when the road was bumpy or winding.
We headed out from Waratah for Gowrie Park which was 17kms south and 49kms east through the mountains. I had been talking to a man in Waratah as to what speeds he did towing and he was telling me he generally did about 45 kph or up to 70 kph on the straighter roads. I did comment to my husband on how slow that was not realising the terrain ahead. I had not travelled through mountains that were so high so as we got to this really mountainous area I found I was using the brakes a lot trying to slow the caravan down. I ended up pulling over on the downhill stretch of one mountain to check everything was alright.
The rig had trouble stopping and you could hear the caravan pushing the car through the gravel. When the car finally stopped clouds of smoke came out from both sides of the car…I figured it was the brakes burning and it certainly smelt like burning brakes. We chocked the 8 wheels and sat there with the two handbrakes on. Realising we could not contact anyone for help we sat there looking at the road downhill, and let the brakes cool down. I was looking at this road going downhill thinking there would be a distance to get to the bottom…I did not know it was 2 km to get down. After 2 hours, even though the brakes had cooled down, I felt I needed the brakes checked to see if any were left before we proceeded, so in the end I wrote all our details on a piece of paper and flagged down a car.
In the middle of Tasmania on a road in the middle of nowhere this lovely couple and their dad from Brisbane stopped to give help. I asked the gentleman if he could please ring RACT breakdown service, when he could get phone or internet service and tell them I need help. I gave him the piece of paper. He did ask me if I had tried 2nd gear and I told him I did not seem to have second gear. In the past my automatic cars had R, N, P, D, and then 1 and 2. My car did not have the 1 and 2.
So we sat there in the car and waited. About 1 hour later, up rocked RACT. He examined the brakes and said there looked like there was still 5mm left at least. To him it was a regular trip as he said he is generally doing rescues every second day from the exact spot.
He told me he would follow me down the mountain but I was to put the car in second gear and not over 3000 revs. He then proceeded to show me where second gear was. Low and behold there was a whole manual system of gears which worked when you moved the gear stick to the right in drive. If only Isuzu had marked it. It was only marked as a horizontal line with a line through it.
He followed us down the hill and I was so carefully and nervously trying not to touch the brakes too often on this windy downhill. I was totally relieved to finally reach the bottom and head off to Gowry Park. The next day we took the car into the next town to Sheffield Tyre and Mechanical (a business where the man from RACT worked) and we had the brakes checked out completely.
If only I could thank the people from Brisbane who came to our rescue, as the thought of having to drive down the hill with no brakes as a last resort was a very scary. Although I am better at driving down mountains now, I am still looking for the flatter roads through the valleys of Tasmania. Nomading is such a learning experience and when you think you know everything about your rig…there is always more.