Geoff had called and sail he would be there around 6:00-6:30, so we had to put an alarm. I started the morning ritual of making tea and coffee. There had been some rain during the night and both the tent and awning where still soaked. We tried to dry it as much as possible, but we definitely packed wet today.
Around 6:25 Geoff pulled in, another friendly Aussie with a big smile. He loaded the car on the truck and we got on board. During the trip we had good conversation and time went fast.
When we got to the seller, we where first directed to their plot, but then they changed their minds and asked if the car could be dropped off at the garage a few km further. There was an instant good vibe off “we are going to arrange something”.
At first they wanted the garage to check out the car and for the time being we got a Mazda 9 to get around. We first went to a nearby shopping center to get a some breakfast and a drink and check what option where there to visit in the neighborhood.
Since we did not know how long it would take before we would get a call, we opted to stay in the neighborhood and not go to the city to visit a museum. We found a part with a New Zealand and Japanese garden where we walked around, sat and enjoyed the peaceful surrounding. We had an ice cream and layed under a palm tree. Around 14:00 we decided to check in with the car sales place.
When we got there it basically took one more phone call with the John, the boss, who was on vacation to come up with a solution. He would lend us a very similar Land Cruiser for our trip and when we get back to Sydney he will buy our Land Cruiser back. Kudos to John an Luigi for this great service!
A bit of paperwork later we where back on the road. This time in a silver 2004 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado 120 GXL with a 4.0 V6 engine. It seemed this one had all the extras the previous one did not have, including air suspension, leather seats, electrical seats, diff lock, and DAC. Besides it was equipped with a snorkel, a lot of extra lights, a UHF radio and a roof rack.
We decided to aim for the camping place we where aiming for on Saturday. For some reason, this time we had a very nice route through the mountains and hardly any highway. It was a pleasure driving around, although the air suspension does seem to give a bit off a wiggle.
Just before sun set we pulled in at the camping spot, it looked a bit spooky with a burned out car wrack in the beginning, but a bit later further down the path we saw another camper and a nice spot. Just like earlier wold camp grounds we where amazed by the amount of garbage left behind. In this case even the remains of a tent, a blanked and a pillow. We put up the tent and the awning, so they could dry, made some dinner and went to sleep.
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