Gympie and back

Tues 18 August… We had to put our theory of big towns and essential supplies to the test today, a visit to Gympie was needed. We have managed to get some grains of sand inside our camera and it refuses to work, the zoom lens won’t zoom and the shutter won’t open. We thought that there must be a camera repair shop in Gympie. The camera just needs stripping down and cleaning-------no such luck! The only place that looked promising was no help at all, they suggested we send it back to the manufacturers in Japan. Obviously we can’t do that whilst we are travelling, so the only option left to us was to buy a new camera. Another bite of the arse experience. In Gympie we did find a book exchange shop, so we are now restocked with a different selection of books. The trip back to Rainbow Beach turned out to be a bit of a white knuckle ride as a very gusty wind had got up and was doing it’s level best to put us on the other side of the road. The van sways at the best of time sand doesn’t cope well in strong winds. Back at base Vanessa and the boys have been driven off the beach by the wind, that said it was like being grit blasted, and so moved to the camp pool. The sand is very fine here, no wonder it got into our camera.