Caravanning Camping Touring
Let me share some of our stories with you. I'll try to keep it fun and interesting, with heaps of photos, hints, tips and reviews all relating to life on the road.
I started this piece with the title ‘The Serene Ostrich’. I figure it could be an interesting study. Does the ostrich lack courage to face the world? Is he just laid-back, experiencing serenity? Is he just plain stupid? Or maybe he does simply have his head in the sand.
I had heard the stories several times, how a guy retires and within 12 months all kinds of disaster have befallen him. I didn’t discount these stories, but I never thought that I would be a part of the record. Nah, I’ll be right! An ostrich for sure.
As most of you know, I retired fully from work on April 1st 2021 and on May 1st 2021 Jo and I began our trip around Australia. The ‘little bump in the road’ that Jo mentioned in the previous post was this…
… on 11 February 2022 at a young age of sixty-nine, (less than twelve months after we began our journey) I had a quadruple bypass.
So now I’m a part of the twelve-month retirement statistics. Now I am an official member of the Zipper Club.
I shouldn’t have been too surprised; I had an angina event in December 2007 and had been on medication all that time without anything too severe getting in the way of normal life. Nevertheless, when it did happen it was disruptive to say the least. So why write this? Well, there are some lessons here that are available for those of a mind to note them. Also, Jo and I like writing and we probably should explain the hiatus in Jo’s blog posts.
May I gain the courage to change the things I can
The serenity to accept the things I cannot change
And the wisdom to know the difference
Starting with ‘changing the things I can’. Well, I could have changed a lot of things and there’s every likelihood that the trauma of the past months could have been avoided. Trouble was, it was all much too subtle. I had the fitness and activity level pretty-much on the positive side of the risk register. But the food intake? Nah!
It’s not that I didn’t like good, wholesome food. But I liked peanut butter sandwiches on soft, white bread slathered with butter a whole lot more. And icy cold coke is really, really refreshing. And KFC, and Macccas, and pizzas… Well, you get the picture.
I never gave a thought for the fat and rubbish I was expecting my body to cope with. So, over the years I simply clogged the plumbing – as simple as that!
But it wasn’t only the clogged plumbing. You see, I really liked the sweet stuff as well. Coca-Cola, chocolate, apple pies and oh my, ice cream. My body couldn’t cope with the excess. It simply couldn’t deal with all that sugar – enter Type 2 Diabetes!
Years ago, as I ran a hundred kilometres a week, played maybe fifteen games of competitive squash and all that other good stuff, I burned up that sugar like a furnace. But then work took over. Instead of running I stressed behind the desk, I didn’t have time for squash, I was too busy working sixty to sixty-five hours a week and often longer.
Oh I did notice what was happening but what could I do? I had commitments and responsibilities; and I was doing really important stuff! It would have taken more courage to change than I could muster. So I kept all the bad habits and got rid of all the good.
Trouble is that Maccas, KFC and pizzas are really in your face, they’re on every corner and on every second advert. And they taste great, they’re cheap and convenient and really social.
Oh, did I mention… They’ll kill you – slowly but surely – they will kill you!
So there’s a lot of calories. But hey, we burn that off no worries with all our sport and active life, not to mention sex – Wow! Does that burn up the cals!”
But what if we stop all that fun stuff, but keep up with the killer diet?
Well there is an action plan. Plan to call the ambulance, plan a near-death experience and just in case you’re not lucky enough to have that near-death experience, pre-plan your funeral, that’ll take a load off those you love most. Thirty percent of heart-attack victims never make it to hospital – thirty percent!
So please use me as a good bad example. Trust me, you do not want to go where I went.
Find the courage to change your life while you still can.
On a brighter note, I’m well on the way to a full recovery, it’s now five weeks since the operation and although it will be several weeks yet before we get on the road, I expect to be back in a more robust body than before.
We want …
Less of This…
More of this..
So we can do much more of this…
This has truly been a profound experience for Jo and me and I hope you will continue to join us as we get back on the road and we navigate the good the bad and the ugly.
Hey… it’s all character building.
As we approach the middle of March, Peter and I should be in the process of making sure that Chunky bum and big ears are well stocked and ready to hit the black. Unfortunately we have hit a “little bump” in the road, (I’ll let Peter fill you in on that in the next post) and as a result, we will be staying with mum for at least another two months.
Over the next few weeks, I want to do a bit of bird watching around the area, if it ever stops raining that is, and I hope to share some of these photos with you at a later date.
In the meantime, and at the prompting of the little furry dude himself, I will share a few of Hugo’s favourite photos.
Before I do, here is a little background information about Hugo and how he came to me. You see, Hugo was given to me by my grandma, many, many years ago, and as such he has a very strong emotional value to me. For Peter, Hugo is, and I quote, “An annoying little fur ball” He’s just joking I’m sure.
Hugo’s first overseas trip with us was to Alaska. Since then he has been to Singapore, Borneo, Japan, Tasmania and of course, he is travelling with us now around mainland Australia. It has to be said that we get mixed reactions when travelling with Hugo, lets face it, it’s not normal to see a couple of adults carrying a teddy bear, (that’s why I give him to Peter to carry most of the time, :)) but when our fellow travellers see Hugo posing for photos, well, then they all want to be in on the picture and as you can see, Hugo finds it quite easy to make friends.
The trick here was to get this little Kyoto cutie to give Hugo back. 
This lady in Sabah, Malaysia was so enamoured with Hugo, she called ahead to our next destination, and we were greeted with cries of, “Where is Mr Hugo?” 
Hugo loved travelling on the local buses in Sandakan, Borneo. 
A thorn between two Kyoto roses. 
Even when travelling incognito, Hugo draws attention to himself. 
Where’s Hugo? Standing in what is said to be the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world, Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo 
Roughing it in the Borneo jungle – well, not that rough. 
We’ll miss you Hugo. 
Never one to shirk his duties.
But it’s not just people that Hugo likes to mingle with and in most places he visits, he can be seen connecting with the local wildlife and other STC’s (Stuffed Travel Companions). 🤪
Hugo & his sisters, Willow and Alba. He always thought they were adopted. 
Hugo and Farmer George, he travels with Hendrina and Peter. 
What the duck?? 
We had to drop in and see Rodney the rooster who lives at Harland Park rest area, south of Yaraman in QLD 
Yes, it’s a capybara from South Amercia, Hugo met him in a pet cafe in Tokyo. 
When in Sydney – find a good drinking buddy. 
Watch out Hugo, Tasmanian possums bite! 
Super hero’s stick together.
As well as meeting people, Hugo is not averse to a bit of adventure. Whether it’s up high, or down low, Hugo’s where we go.
Ready for another fun filled day 
Getting up close to a glacier in Alaska 
Cap’n Hugo 
That’s one way to get on the beer! 
Mucklandama Creek waterhole near the old police barracks, Boulia, Outback QLD 
From Outback to Beach, Hugo loves it all. 
Bushwalking in beautiful Tasmania. 
There’s always time for a snackeroo at the Birdsville races. 
On Bilby watch, but only saw their tracks. 
Taking in the serenity of Mt Fuji. 
“They said that they were coming back, but I’m getting a bit worried.” 
“I can help.” 
Perhaps a bit too close. 
Worth the walk up Baldy Hill lookout in south-west QLD. 
Kayaking on Cooper Creek 
There’s always a place for a swing, this one’s at Nockundra on Cooper Creek, last water before crossing from Queensland into South Australia – the back way. 
Tokyo at night. 
Dining in style. 
I said ‘understand, not under sand… gee! 
Always the klutz. 
My boots aren’t made for walking, but they are awfully cute!
Before we sign off on Hugo’s post, there is one more thing he wanted me to let you know. I tried to talk him out of it but… Here goes, the answer to the age old question; Where does a bear go, when he has to, you know…go?
In the woods of course, but hey, there’s no need to rough it.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
Let me start by saying; I hope each and every one of you had a wonderful Christmas and that you were able to see in the New Year the way you wanted to.
Peter and I had a lovely Christmas with family, and mum hosted a New Year’s Eve party. I think it’s safe to say, everyone had a terrific time and, like every other person in the world, we enjoyed saying goodbye 2021 and are looking forward to a much better 2022.
Now, I would love to tell you all about our travels, but…we are still stationary at Port Macquarie. Mum had her cast removed on the six-week mark, and even though the break was healing well, she was given a moon boot to wear for an additional six weeks. Let me tell you, she was not happy about that. But at least she could walk around and do more for herself.
The silver lining to our prolonged stay is that we have been able to make some changes to the caravan. Mainly, upgrading our batteries, installing a couple of fans, fixing the arial we ripped off the roof some months ago, (don’t ask me where or when we did that) and insect proofing the van. I’ll hand you over to Peter tell you about the electrical stuff.
Hi, yes it’s me, Peter. So, about the electrical stuff (and other things). It’s been over 18 months since we took delivery and we’ve spent the majority of that time living in the van so we’re getting to know our way around the lifestyle. Generally, the van has proven to be very good but we’re pleased to be addressing these few things:
- The water tank level meters never worked anywhere near well enough. Projecta replaced the PM 200 for us but it still just didn’t work so now we’re getting it replaced with a separate meter, we’ll have to let you know how that works out.
- Night-flying insects love the inside more than the outside and the insect screening just isn’t effective. Talking to others and it seems that this is a very common situation. Jo spent some time looking for their secret entrance and we came up with what we hope will make it a bit more difficult for them.
- The big one is the batteries. Our 200 AHrs of AGM battery was just not enough and we killed them! So now we have 400 AHrs of Lithium Ion, I reckon this will be great.
THE BATTERIES
We had two, 100AH AGMs That seems like an ok spec but here’s the rub: We have a 12/240V fridge that has a rated power demand of 3 Ahrs, that assumes that it only needs to run 20 minutes in the hour… not so. I reckon these fridges probably run for more like 60% of the time if not more (and that’s in winter with the fridge set to 3 of 5) so if you do a bit of basic arithmetic you’ll find that they probably pull 120 plus AHrs in any 24 hour period. Add in a few overcast days and before you know it, your 200 AHrs of AGM are down to less than 50% even without switching on a light. Do that a few times and you have dead AGMs!
So we killed our AGMs! The lack of a current flow meter on the Projecta 200 series management system made it hard to monitor the battery charge/ current drain so we had to guess. To solve this, we had a Caravan Repair workshop install a Projecta BM320 which is a good unit as long as it’s installed properly; unfortunately, that didn’t happen, not everything went through the earth shunt, so a bit of a waste really.
You know there’s a lot in this so I’ll just jump to the take-aways:
THE TAKE-AWAYS
- Budget your compressor fridge to use 120 to 150 AHrs per day.
- AGMs do not like to be flattened, and flattened means being taken down below 50%. That means that 2 x 100 AHrs are at best (and I do mean best) only good for 100 AHrs in a day.
- Solar panels aren’t all the manufacturers say they are and if you relate 100 watts of solar to the current you can draw from your batteries per hour it comes to about 3.5 amps in summer and 2.5 amps in winter. So if you have 300 watts of solar multiply the above hourly usage by 3. Of course this is reduced with every cloud that passes and every layer of dust on your panels.
WHAT BUGS US AT NIGHT
You may recall from an old post (ref it) that we have a lot of problems bug-proofing the van. After a few tests Jo was able to find out exactly where they are getting in. Following the light they hit the fly screen, make their way up into the roller mechanism, then still following the light, into the window frame then into the van from the space between window frame and the wall.
- Getting the blind/screen assembly off the wall is easy but I found that using a lever to prise the assembly away gives more control than just ‘grabbing and reefing’ them off.
- Using a sponge sealing strip around the frame with the sponge a couple of millimetres proud of the frame will seal that gap nicely.
- The biggest gap is between the screen roller and the assembly frame so this needs to be filled with foam also, but you will need to be careful not to create too much pressure against the screen as this will impact on the operation of the screen as it moves up and down.
- Removing the screen roller to fix this sponge means managing the wound up spring inside the screen roller. If you lose control of this spring it will unwind quickly (and noisily) and could cause damage. You need to control the spring not only from unwinding but also from pushing out axially so expect the spring axle to push outwards and brace the end of the spring axle against the framework or you will lose it. In the last photo below you will see that the axle pushes out 50 mm (this is it fully unwound on one that I lost control of). If this happens you just have to guess on how tight to rewind the screen but I would suggest not to over-tighten it.
- I found that using vice-grips gave me better control and I kept hold of the screen while Jo applied the sealing sponge.
- Whether this is successful or not is for another day – but we’re hopeful.
Another little change we’ve made is that we have found some storage cupboards to benefit from extra shelves. I rather like the way this has worked out and it’s really quite simple, so in the photos below I’ll show you what I did.
Another little change we’ve made is that we have found some storage cupboards to benefit from extra shelves.
I rather like the way this has worked out and it’s really quite simple.
The material is all from Bunnings (where else?).
- 7mm ply for the shelves. Allow 2-3mm clearance each side for easy fitting (and to allow for error). Our cupboards are 460 wide so I cut mine at 458 and that worked out well.
- 18mm ‘L’ moulding braces the front and back of the shelves to stop them bowing under weight and provides a lip to stop things sliding off. I just glued these on to the shelf. I cut these 450mm wide allowing 5mm either side for easy fitting.
- 18mm quad forms the shelf supports. I glued and screwed these. Cut them a little shorter to allow for the ‘L’ brackets. I cut mine . To get them level I used an appropriate height support that I knew was parallel and just sat the shelf support on top of that to get the height – worked out fine.
A COOL IMPROVEMENT
We bought a couple of Sirocco fans. They’re not cheap, over $200.00 each but they’re quiet operating and only draw three to four hundred milliamps at full speed. We had thought to mount these on the ceiling above the foot of the bed. But after looong consideration we bowed to reality – getting power to them would have been difficult and there really is not enough support in the ceiling.
So we mounted them on the sides, this is all pretty good. Power on one side came from the TV 12v power outlet and on the other side we took it down through the corner cabinet and into the battery compartment under the seat.
Just a hint on this. Rather than just connect to the battery I installed a 4-way 12V terminal strip, so in the future we just need to connect to this terminal strip rather than meddle with the battery connections. This is important given that the RedArk BMS would need to be reprogrammed if we were to disconnect the battery.
WHO NEEDS A RADIO ANYWAY?
Well, we do; so we have to replace the one we ripped off under a tree. I reckon it was when we were bush-camped on the Darling River, but who knows?
It’s probably a very simple task to replace the radio aerial but I don’t want to mess with the waterproofing on the roof of the van, so I’m getting it fixed by the professionals. Mind you, not all professionals are… so I’ve done a bit of prep work for them.
I checked with the manufacturer and got them to send me the extraction tool to get the radio out of its’ chassis and took the radio out in preparation. I also plan to ‘suggest’ to them that they use the existing radio aerial lead (after cutting off the broken aerial mount) as a draw wire to pull the new aerial cable through from the top. It really should be quite straight-forward – we’ll see.
Back to me, Jo. So our time in Port is coming to an end, and we are getting very excited about getting back on the road. We have a few more bits and pieces to fix up on Chunky Bum, but in the mean time we will continue to enjoy mum’s company and the beautiful scenery and wildlife of Port Macquarie, even though it has rained most of the time we have been here.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
It has been a very trying couple of years for everyone around the globe. The loss of loved ones, unprecedented restrictions, and lockdowns to name just a few of the challenges we have all had to face. Each person would have faced these challenges in their own way, as did we. Peter and I chose to keep on doing what we wanted, within the limitations. We have thoroughly enjoyed our first six months on the road and are looking forward to continuing and sharing with you, our adventures in 2022. But for now, we want to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a New Year that lets us return to some form of normality.
Now that we have arrived at Port Macquarie our travels will be put on hold until the New Year. Apart from a few Camp Oven Cooking posts, you might not hear from us for a month or two, but don’t worry…we’ll be back! In the meantime, here are a few of my favourite photos, in no particular order, from our trip so far.
Now, for all of you who like statistics, Peter has put together a summary of our travels to date, and I, of course, have thrown in a few more photos. Over to Peter.
So here we are, at the end of our Australian Walkabout travels for 2021. First of May, a Saturday, we drove away and now we’re pretty-well settled into this nomadic lifestyle.
Expecting to be away for a couple of years at least, we first visited family, the first month in Queensland before crossing into New South Wales. Heading out of Sydney we visited Dubbo, Coonabarabran, the Warrumbungles, Lightning Ridge, Bourke, Gundabooka, Broken Hill, and everywhere in between.
Covid-19 had been following us closely as we went west and Dubbo, Walgett, Bourke, and Wilcannia, shut down within days of us passing through. Covid finally caught up with us at Broken Hill, but we managed to leave town just 15 minutes ahead of the lockdown, made it to Menindee Lakes where we endured nine weeks of lockdown, on our own private lakeside beach.
When we were free to move again, we visited Tibooburra and Cameron Corner, marking the top north-west of the State. It became clear that we would not be able to cross into QLD or SA, so we made the decision to stay in NSW until the new year and began to make our way southeast towards Port Macquarie. Which is where we are now.
This is a good time to review the stats, so here they are in summary as at 1st December:
Distance travelled
Total distance travelled 11,731 km
Average distance travelled 55 km /day
Longest stay in one place 61 days
Fuel/ cost
Total fuel used 1,847 litres of diesel.
Total cost of fuel $2,897
Average cost of diesel $1.57/ litre
Average economy 15.74 litre/100km
Average cost per 100km $24.71 per 100km
Accommodation/ cost
Total days travelling 204
Days in caravan parks 51
Days bush camping 153
Percentage in caravan parks 25%
Average cost of caravan parks $32.88/ night
Average spend on accomm $62.00/ week
So, in summary for budgeting purposes
Cost of travel is around $25.00 per 100 Km and cost of accommodation is approximately $65.00/ week.
Stay safe, enjoy the Christmas season, and we’ll see you back On Tow and On The Go, in 2022.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
We had a couple of weeks to kill before we had to be in Port Macquarie on 1st December. This gave us enough time to do a couple of national parks in the area, but the rain, it seemed, had other ideas.
To avoid the worst of the immediate rain, we stopped at a little town called Trangie, in the Trangie Caravan Park. We booked for two nights but ended up staying three. This is a great little park with good amenities and super friendly owners who go out of their way to make you feel welcome. We’ll definitely stay there again if ever in the area.
We didn’t get to do much there because of the weather but we did get a chance to visit the local weir, which was flooding, and explore the areas between Trangie, Collie and Warren. This area, and beyond, is wheat country and I want to give a big shout out to our farmers. We drove through Lord knows how many acres of wheat fields all waiting to be harvested, but the rain had put a stop to that.
Our farmers put food on our tables but I don’t think we give them a second thought let alone the credit they deserve, I know I didn’t. They work hard, as do most of us, but, they are slaves to mother nature. Too much rain they can’t plant, too little rain their crop dies. Then they have to contend with pests. Insects and mice can decimate a crop. If all goes well, they can look forward to a good crop, but if it rains, the farmers can’t harvest at the optimum time, and the price drops. I don’t think I’ll ever complain about the price of flour or cereals again.
After leaving Trangie we continued on our way to Coolah National Park taking all the minor roads through the wheat country. Crossing the Newell Highway at Gilgandra we decided to stop overnight at the Gilgandra Bowling Club. This is a very convenient and pleasant free overnight spot. Within an hour we were settled in and Peter was making snoring noises on his chair under the awning so I called mum. The conversation went something like this:
“Hi mum, how are you?”
“I’m fine. Ahhh, if you had to, how long would it take you to get here?”
“A couple of days. Why?”
“I’m in hospital…”
“Why? What happened?”
“I broke my ankle.” Mum declared cheerfully.
To which I replied. “We’ll be there tomorrow.”
So instead of an overnight at Gilgandra we just had a pleasant hour’s rest then got going again.
And just how did my mum break her ankle? Well, it seems the last thing mum’s cleaner did before she left was to wash the floor. However, she neglected to dry it this time, and mum walked out of the bedroom onto the tiles and slipped. She managed to get herself up and called a good friend of hers, Doriel, who came over straight away. After a while, Doriel managed to convince mum that she needed more than a bandage and a bit of deep heat. Mum, of course, refused to call an ambulance.
So, picture this. An 85 year old lady, complete with broken ankle, being helped by an 80 year old lady, into a car and off to the hospital. They didn’t even stop at the hospital’s main entrance but went to find a space in the car park. Luckily someone noticed them struggling and got mum into a wheelchair. All I can say is that they breed them tough around here.
The drive to Port Macquarie was a very wet one. As the rain came down, we were lucky enough to stay ahead of the floods but witnessed many swollen and overflowing rivers, creeks, and roads and made the 600 kilometre drive in about eight hours. Not particularly fast, I agree, but towing three and a half tons of caravan in torrential rain, I think we did alright.
Even the fish seemed to be having trouble. We drove over a causeway and noticed something unusual. A whirlpool on the left hand side, probably caused by large drainage pipes under the road, and these created a super highway for the unwitting fish. We presumed that the fish were getting sucked through the pipes and spat out on the other side. Either that, or they were just having a bit of fun.
We have been in Port for just over two weeks now and have had mum back to the hospital to check her progress. There was some concern that she might need an operation, but the break is healing nicely so the operation is off the table. 😊 They removed the temporary half cast and now mum has a shiny, new, full, hard cast. She still can’t stand on it, but we don’t have to worry about accidental bangs and knocks any more. Better than that, she has taken to her little wheelchair like a duck to water and is zipping around like Michael Schumacher. I suggested her callsign should be Ironside, (remember TV’s crime drama which aired from late 60s to mid 70’s, whose lead character, Robert Ironside, was in a wheelchair?) anyway, mum said she her call sign to be Mad Maxine.
That’s my mum.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
One of the couples we have bumped into a few times had recommended we visit Lake Cargelligo. Because our plans, such as they are, had been thrown to the wind, we decided to give it a go.
As we drove down the main street of Cargelligo, it took us a few moments to realise that what we were looking at through the windscreen, was not a mirage shimmering in the distance, but a huge lake. As we got closer, we could see that the foreshore was lush green manicured lawns and garden beds and wondered if we had somehow slipped into a parallel dimension.
Lake Cargelligo was full to capacity when we arrived, and with more rain predicted, there was a lot of work going on to reinforce/heighten some of the lake’s banks to cope with the rain, and the run-off from rain further up the Lachlan River.
There are a couple of free camp areas around lake Cargelligo, Froggy Hollow, low and close to the lake, and Dead Man’s Point, also close to the lake, but with access to higher ground. Both areas were within easy walking distance from the town centre. We chose to stay at Dead Man’s Point and parked on the highest ground we could find. Even so, we were still only a few meters away from the lakes edge, had easy access to the lake via the boat ramp, and great views.
It really was a lovely place to stay and we ended up there six nights. The weather wasn’t the best but we still managed to wet the kayaks. To be honest, I only went out once, it was too cold and windy for me, I know…sook, but Peter braved the weather a few times.
Lake Cargelligo is a really lovely place to visit, and even though the weather was cold, blustery and wet, we really enjoyed it. As with many other places, it was very quiet here, though there were more caravans here than anywhere else we have been. Pre-Covid-19, Lake Cargelligo was a big water sport venue for locals and tourists alike. Let’s hope things get back to normal for this lovely little town sooner rather than later.
Oh, and for all you Twitchers out there, the Lake and the surrounding area is home to over 200 bird species. I think I saw about 10 of them. 😊
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
