Gympie Chatsworth park rest area

Chatsworth park rest area 1st - 2nd October 2013

I contacted Russell at Stevo’s garage asking his advise on the gearbox issue I was having and whether he could fit me in for a looksee. I informed him that a second hand gearbox had been sourced at a cost of $650. I was happy to go pick up the gearbox if needed but asked him to get me a freight charge from its location back to Gympie. Obviously I didn’t relish the 8 hour drive it would have taken me to pick the gearbox up so had everything crossed when I pulled over the pits for the inspection. I have a lot of faith in Russell’s ability; he is defiantly old school with a knowledge that is second to none. If anyone can sort this issue out he can. He explained exactly what he was going to do so we could find a solution to the problem.

I put the bus into first gear and awaited the removal of the linkage, being in gear whilst I climbed a few hills would determine if it was a gearbox issue or a linkages problem.

It sailed up all the hills without an issue and came down the hills with as much ease, even though I tried to make it jump out of gear by pumping the accelerator. Thankfully it didn’t jump out of gear, so we had our answer. It was the linkage. A tweak here and a tighten there and we were all set to give it a trial run. It passed with flying colours. I really can’t thank Russell enough for all his attention to detail, he saved me a small fortune and I really am sorry he burnt his baldhead on the exhaust.

Having sorted the mechanics on the bus out we really didn’t have much time to sort out our next free camp. We had already researched the local area and had decided on Chatsworth park reserve. It was late afternoon when we set off from Stevo’s, thankfully it wasn’t a huge distance to go and we arrived mid afternoon.

 A very nice free camp with plenty of space, some of the parking areas have been given a hard standing. We however weren’t lucky enough to grab one of these. That said we did find a nice spot to park up and settled in for the evening.

The only thing that I didn’t like about Chatsworth was the noise from the Bruce highway. It was relentless throughout the night and I managed little sleep. Time to move on I think. Having said that if road noise doesn’t bother you Chatsworth park is a great little spot.

Chatsworth park rest area

Latitude -26 9 1S   Longitude 152 37 47E

Dump-point - No Toilets - Yes Water - No Pets - Yes Shower - no 

Length - 11 Mtrs Level - Yes Noise - YES Grassed - Yes Cost - Free Time Limit - 20 hours