Wednesday 22nd May, 2019

I was awake in the night feeling a general sort of anxiety and sadness. A couple of Panadol helped me to sleep. This morning we made a good start, getting away at 9.00 a.m. We had brief stops, with the thermos doing it’s work in allowing for a very quick morning tea.

We arrived in Hay at about 1.30 p.m. We were low on fuel, and whilst filling up Stephen noticed that we had fuel leaking underneath, about 1 drop every 10 seconds (mathematics person here). He enquired at the counter and was recommended to check out Phil at a local mechanics shop. He had two goes at it and was able to diagnose the problem without being able to give a good solution. Apparently where the fuel line meets the fuel tank there is a discrepency in size. Our Young mechanics ‘fixed’ this with a clamp, but this is not really a long term solution as the fuel tank nozzle of the correct size needs to be made. He tightened the original clamp, which then was still leaking. He then used a stronger clamp.

My concern was safety. He assurred us that diesel is not highly flammable and can’t catch fire from fumes, however noxious. We are likely to have a small leakage from that connection until we have it fixed, but it isn’t dangerous to use our gas stove.  I contacted the insurance company and our repairer has been awarded a ‘fail’ for this.

Our plan is to continue driving homewards and keep an eye on the leak. If it gets stronger we can seek out a mechanic wherever we are to tighten/replace the clamp. In Perth we can take the Winnie to Iveco for repair. It will be due for a service as well.

I wanted to stay by the river in Hay, but Stephen wanted to go a little further. We are on the side of the road in a fairly basic rest area. It is a truck stop and we have found a spot away from the main area to stay the night.

There is a stuffy smell in the van from being shut up for so long at the workshop. A pack of toilet rolls turned out to be quite wet, I assume because it was absorbing the moisture from the air, quite a good thing really. At the moment I would like to take everything out to air it, but that will have to wait until we get home. Hopefully by opening hatches and windows as much as we can and using heaters to dry out the air when it is cold, things will get better day by day.