This has been one of those days that one wishes had never happened – oh for a rewind button!
It all started last night after we had retired and fallen asleep. Himself woke up about 12.30 am and could hear water running, which then necessitated a trip to the convenience. All was well until he reached the end of the bed and started paddling in our indoor swimming pool. Once outside to join our backdoor neighbour, he discovered water leaking out the door of the toilet canister compartment. Mains pressure water was immediately turned off and the door opened to a great gush of water – fortunately, the toilet cassette is sealed and we only had to deal with tap water. Inside, the en-suite was complete awash and the water had soaked through the carpet surrounding our bed. With our limited supply of towels, we sopped up as much water from the carpet as we could, realising it would have to be left until the morning. Back outside to determine the cause of the problem, trying to be very quiet, and Les realised that the screw in the clamp holding the mains pressure hose to the toilet inlet tank had worked lose and the hose had blown off. It was a simple matter to screw it all back together again, so that we had water again in the caravan (apart from what was on the floor!). As I was in the process of soaking up water and squeezing towels, one lens fell out of my glasses; luckily Leslie was able to put it back in for me.
After a couple of hours sleep and a quick breakfast, it was the laundry for all the towels and a Stanley knife for the carpet. It was so wet that we made the decision that the carpet would need to be removed – and the only way this could be done was to cut it into pieces and then remove it carefully. The wheel arch cover was removed (to reveal a good supply of WA red dust), as was the panelling under the window in order to prevent any water seeping into the ply. Fortunately, the floor is timber and not particle board. To assist with drying the floor, we had the fan heater going and the air conditioner on, with all the windows and hatches shut. I think the humidity generated in our caravan increased the humidity in Cairns today – well over 70%, which made for a very sticky day. My hair dryer was even put to use drying around the edges, until it turned into a firework and started shooting sparks!
AAMI were very good when we rang them and the girl understood that we were on holiday a long way from home and that caravans were much more difficult to move about than cars. The upshot is that the damage will be covered by our insurance and we should be able to wait until we get home to have it repaired (this will make the repairs much easier for us, as the bed will need to be removed to relay floor coverings.
Towards mid-afternoon, we were able to replace the panel and wheel arch, then use the vacuum cleaner and broom to clean up all the bits of carpet. When I moved our piece of lawn outside our door, I discovered a colony of ants were very busy moving all their eggs underneath it and setting up home. They aren’t anymore, nor are they setting up anywhere else!
Himself didn’t even think about washing the car or think about washing the caravan today.
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