We’ve made it to day 2! Orbost to Torquay.
We had an early 6:30am start today with a planned route from Orbost to Torquay following the coast line. But road trips don’t always go as planned when you’re driving 40 year old cars for thousands of kilometres over just a few days.
Cam’s 280CE was still giving him trouble with the alternator. The closest replacement was Mercbits in Dandenong, Victoria, so we decided we would take the direct route there and make our way to Torquay for the ferry after that.
So we set off and made the first stop in the town of Stratford for some breakfast. While we were here it was decided that John and Cam would swap batteries to give Cam a fighting chance of making it the whole distance. Poor Cam has been driving without headlights or wipers since last night to conserve his battery.
We then pushed on another 66km to Traralgon where they made another battery swap. We were surprised to find Cam’s batter at a reasonable 11.8V compared to John’s at 11.5V. It turns out Cam’s alternator was charging but not at 100%, so we were confident we could push on to Dandenong without a major mishap. Meanwhile, my power steering was playing up. Right turns were fine, but on left turns i would intermittently lose power assistance – this just meant that left turns needed a bit more muscle than normal.
We finally made it through to Mercbits and met Rob, the owner. Rob proved to be very helpful and also had a couple of 126 sedans that I was able to get some parts from. I managed to score the plastic boot trim and a reasonable set of wood trim for my dash while Cam was working away on his alternator. The wood trim will be sent up to Sydney in a few days as it takes a bit of time to remove from the car.
I also had a chance to chat with Rob about the power steering problem I’m having – he believes its just a spring that has come loose or broken. But if I’m pulling the box out when i get home, i may as well have it rebuilt.
From Dandenong it was a short 45 minute drive to Sorrento for the ferry to Queenscliffe, but we needed to stop for lunch and took a break in Baxter.
We then continued tk Sorrento and along the way Cam had made some enquiries about a replacement radiator and managed to find one – unfortunately it was back in Dandenong and we were in eyesight of the ferry terminal. So it was decided we would catch the 4:00pm ferry and Cam would go back to Dandenong and meet us later at Dandenong.
We got off the ferry and started off from Queesncliffe. While in Queenscliffe we spotted a lookout and decided to stop for some photos.
While at Queenscliffe, we happened to come across a memorial for the ship Alan’s father served on during the war.
From Queenscliffe we powered on to our final destination for the day – Torquay, and settled in for some beer and pizza. Cam managed to catch up with us for dinner and then he fitted his new radiator.
We have our biggest day of driving planned for tomorrow. Torquay to Glenelg. Ablut 850km in total so were planning for an early start and hopeful of an uneventful journey.
