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.
Are you ready to find out how we ended up in Bourke, NSW?
Well, this is how it went down.
If you recall, I had taken over the driving at Eulo and we had just turned onto the first of a long stretch of dirt roads, heading for Hungerford. After driving a couple of hours, I pulled over as Peter needed a comfort break. I got out of the car for a bit of a stretch while Peter did what needed to be done. I could hear a heavy stream of water and thought, He’s been holding that in waaay to long. Then I noticed water spilling out from Chunky Bum’s door.
I voiced a few expletives as I ran to get the key, then a few more when I opened the door and was greeted by a torrent of water. By this time Peter had heard my distress calls, and when he realised what had happened, add a few expletives of his own.
Somewhere along the corrugated road our kitchen tap had “bounced” open, and while we drove merrily along, it had emptied our entire supply of water, some one hundred and eighty litres, into the sink. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem, except…we were carrying our coffee machine in the sink and had used tea towels as packing. This, of course, was a very effective method of blocking the sink hole. Once the sink was full…well you can guess the rest. One hundred and eighty litres.
We were lucky, if you can call it that, that we had stopped near the entrance of the Currawinya National Park. There was a large area with an information board and a turnaround point, which allowed us to get fully off the road.
Grabbing every towel we could get our hands on we started mopping. Once the thick was up we took a break, surveyed the damage, and made our plan of attack. The plan was simple, while I prepared the tables and floor mat, (remember we were in red dirt territory) Peter started to pass out everything that was wet. As it turned out, that was everything. Well… almost everything.
The water had gotten into all the floor level cupboards, as well as the cupboard and six drawers under the sink. It had also drenched everything stored under the bed and my electric piano, which lives at the foot of the bed.
While we were working, we had a visit from a Ranger who thought we were planning to camp there for the night (I mean who camps like this?) we eventually convinced him were not going to stay and he wished us luck and went on his way.
Four and a half hours after our arrival we had put away everything that was dry, scattered the ‘still damp stuff’ around the van, and put the ‘still wet stuff’ in the back of the canopy. We made a cheese sandwich and washed it down with an ice-cold beer, then congratulated ourselves on our lovely clean caravan, before getting back on the road to Hungerford.
About an hour later, we pulled over so I could take photos of a family of Brolgas. Things were looking up. Not! That was when we noticed that the ceiling hatch over our bed that Peter had closed, hadn’t.
Interesting fact from Peter: As you drive, the pressure on the outside of the van is considerably higher than the slight vacuum created on the inside of the van, so any dust will be sucked into the vacuum – it’s just physics! What this means, in short, is that dust gets into places where you don’t even know you have places! Oh Joy.
All I can say is it’s a good thing Peter likes cleaning 😊.
You know how I always look for a silver lining? Well, I was struggling that day, but… I did find one. We thought that all our water had been pumped onto the floor of the van. Not so. The pump doesn’t reach all the way to the bottom of the tank, so there was some water left for emergencies.
However, we didn’t realise this until after we arrived at Hungerford. In a case of deja vu, I noticed that there was water leaking from the bottom of the tank. Yep, somewhere between the “Big Flood”, the “Dust Debacle” and the dirt road to Hungerford, a stone had hit and snapped a connection off the bottom of the front water tank and leaked out the very last of our precious water!
So not only did we not have any water at all, but we also couldn’t refill the tank ‘cause it had a bloody great hole in it. Not that it would have made any difference. You see there was no drinking water available for travellers at Hungerford. Could it get any worse?
Apparently so. Big Ears (car) had a falling out with Chunky Bum (caravan). Big Ears decided he didn’t want to share his battery with the dead weight he had been dragging behind him for the past year and a half, so he simply cut off supply. So poor old Chunky Bum had to rely on solar energy alone.
In Peter-speak – The isolator had an intermittent fault and inhibited the 12 volt supply from the car to the Anderson plug, so the caravan batteries would slowly discharge as we used more power than the solar panels could provide. This needed to be fixed.
Talking of things to be fixed, we’re don’t yet know if we burnt out the water pump. We’ll have to wait until Peter fixes the tank, so we can fill it, and test the pump. Fingers crossed.
And that my friends, is why we are now in Bourke. No caravan charging from the car, no water, no water tank, no Strzelecki Track.
Oh, and we’re thinking of trading the van in for a boat.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
After what seems like an eternity (well, November 2021 is a long time ago) of hanging around, doctors’ visits, tests, hospitals etc, we are finally free to travel.
We left Darlington Park as planned; well almost. Peter had to say goodbye to everyone we’d met, then a couple of likely lads came around to check out his rig, so a ten am departure turned into an eleven thirty departure, an hour and a half later than planned, but leave we did, eager to get to Lake Eyre.
Our first overnight should have been Goondiwindi. We didn’t make it. We would have, had we had another hour and a half of daylight (funny that). Instead we pulled over in a rest area, had leftover lamb shoulder and brown rice for dinner, (it was even nicer the next day Rae), watched a couple of episodes of Big Bang, and had an early night.
The next day we passed a lot of cotton farms as we drove west. This always seems a strange choice of crop for such a drought plagued area, but the cotton fields sure are pretty.
We spent the night at the oval in Talwood. What a great spot, with the oval on one side and scrub land on the other, and well away from the road. Very clean amenities, dump point water and rubbish bins. What more could you ask for?
The next night we revisited Wallum creek in Bollon. Our last stay here lasted seven days, this one would be much shorter but just as nice.
We couldn’t help but notice the large number of travellers heading west. And Bollon was no exception, travellers swarmed in late in the afternoon and swarmed out early the next morning. After a call to Peter’s sister, we realised why. The Big Red Bash was on, (https://www.bigredbash.com.au/home) and it was a sell-out. 10,000 tickets had been sold all around the country. That got us to thinking, narrow dirt roads, a gazillion cars, trailers, and caravans, all travelling the same roads as us… Hmm, maybe it was time to go to Plan B.
Plan B would still get us to Lake Eyre in about the same time, but we would avoid the Big Bash traffic, including a two kilometre line up for fuel from the one outlet in town. Seriously, that’s what happened at the last Bash. Saying that, you get your fuel from the pub so you could have a beer while you wait, providing they don’t sell out. Again, that happened. But I digress, back to plan B.
Plan B means that instead of doing the Birdsville Track, we’d do the Strzelecki Track. The Strzelecki is a bit more challenging, (and I’m not just talking about trying to pronounce it). But I believe they have started to seal it, so if we want to do it while it is still a “track” now is the time.
We were excited to be leaving Bollon after our three-night stay. Peter got us up and out of bed by 5:30am eager to follow Plan B, our next overnight stop, Hungerford in NSW. We stopped in Cunnamulla briefly to empty the toilet cassette, top up our fuel, (at $2.49 per litre I might add) and fill up our water tanks. You can’t be driving through the desert without plenty of water.
Later that day, we pulled over in a little town called Eulo so that I could take over driving for a while. Three kilometres out of Eulo we turned left onto dirt road. Ahead of us was four hundred and eighty-five kilometres of dirt which would take us to Tibooburra which is our jump-off point to join the Strzelecki Track via Cameron Corner. From Tibooburra to Marree is a further 680 kilometres of dirt track. This is the start of our Lake Eyre adventure. Bring it on!
So, the question I’ll leave you all with is this: How the hell did we end up in Bourke?
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
Although we are no longer in Capalaba, we aren’t that far away. I had to have another series of tests and need to be back in Brissy this Friday for the results, but we thought bugger it! We’re going somewhere more interesting.
About an hour and a half drive from Capalaba is a great camping spot; Darlington Park camp ground. It’s a very well maintained, open area, quiet (apart from the much needed road works,) near a nice little river, and there are plenty of birds. Oh, and when I say a nice little river, I mean a river that’s crystal clear and so enticing for swimming – if the water wasn’t so cold.
Just a little side note. It really does pay to keep an eye on things. While Peter was setting up the camp, in particular lowering the awning, he noticed something that could have been a problem. The screws holding the awning to the van were not just loose, they were almost out.
FYI The test results came back; I need more tests. ☹ So, Darlington Park is our home for a few more days.
So to cheer us up here are some of the locals.
Even though this was a bit of an impromptu camp, we decided to have a camp oven meal. We didn’t have the right cut of meat for slow cooking. No stock and limited vegies. Who cares, I’ll give it a go. I dug out three lamb chump chops from the freezer, not a cut I normally buy, then because of Peter’s recent health issues, I went about de-fatting the meat. I know, I love my lamb fat too. Never mind, it’s all about eating healthier now, and the carnivore birds got a good feed from the off cuts. Butcher birds, Grey Butcher’s, Magpies, and Currawongs.
After heating the pan, I seared the meat bones, such as they were, along with a few bits of onions, garlic, parsnip, and carrot in olive oil. After that, I did something different. I would normally add the meat and sear that. This time, I added the vegies and coated them with the Moroccan seasoning and olive oil.
I then removed the vegies added a bit more oil and seared the meat, which was already coated in the Moroccan seasoning. Once that was seared, I added about 300 ml of water, 100 of wine and put the vegies back in. Gave it a good old stir and sat down to enjoy a beer.
Did it taste good? I don’t know yet, I’m still enjoying my beer. I’ll let you know in about an hour and a half.
An hour and a half later… They say a picture paints a thousand words, well this picture only needs one…Yummy! To be honest it was not one of the best camp oven dishes, but it was very tasty none the less and we had the leftovers as a fry up for breakfast the following day.
I told Hugo not to feed the birds, would he listen to me? Course not, he’s a boy bear.
And finally, great news. I got the results from my last test, and… we are good to go! No more hanging around Brisbane for anything. We are booked in here until Saturday 25th June then we gone. The plan is to travel west through south Queensland to Birdsville, then we we take the Birdsville Track and finally make it to south Australia. What?…we’re only seven months behind schedule.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
I know it has been a while since my last post, and I am sure you are wondering where we have been, what we have been doing, and where we are now?
The answers to these questions are; not very far, not very much and pretty close to home. We are currently in the Greenacres Caravan Park in Capalaba; about thirty minutes from our home to be precise.
What happened? Well, here’s the short version.
We finally left Port Macquarie on the 22nd of April and headed back to QLD. We visited family and friends, got Chunky Bum re-registered, (she’s a proud Queenslander again) and did other bits of admin and medical stuff, regular check-ups and the like.
All of this took longer than we had hoped, but eventually on 16th May, our duties were complete, and we were on our way again. First stop Flanagan’s Reserve at Rathdowney. We arrived on a Monday and set up camp on the banks of the fast-flowing Logan River. There were no other campers in sight, but plenty of Possums walking through the camp to keep us company. Now this is what we needed. Time to chillax.
The road to Flannagan’s Reserve – Our chill-out camp is just up the road. 
The flooding was serious. 
As this driver learned – the hard way. 
Almost there… 
A few steps from our camp. 
Kayaking anyone? 
Or maybe just relax by the river for a couple of weeks 
Beautiful, peaceful country. 
Curious visitors 
Carry on, don’t worry about us… 
We’re all pretty relaxed now. 
Ahhh, at last …Chillax…
I woke up the following day, Tuesday the 17th feeling quite unwell. To keep a short story even shorter, by the 23rd of May I was in hospital having an appendectomy. My appendix had burst, and to quote the surgeon, “…it was a mess in there…” Five days after that, they let me go home, with the promise that I would stay close to medical facilities for at least a week, in case the infection flared up again, and that I was to have four to six weeks rest and light duties.
I won’t dwell on this but let me say I am extremely pleased that we only have one appendix, because I would not like to go through that again.
More from Flannagan’s Reserve
While I was in hospital, Peter moved Chunky Bum from Rathdowney back to Greenacres Caravan Park, (this had been our base while we were visiting and doing our admin stuff). It’s a lot closer to the hospital and more central for our regular GP. I did a follow-up with my GP on the 2nd of June, my bloodwork shows that the infection is gone but my liver is out of whack, so we have to hang around for another week to re-do the blood test. If my liver is settling down, then Hasta la vista baby! Auf Wiedersehen pet! Sayonara! Arrivederci! Tot ziens!
I don’t care how you say it, but we are out of here and you won’t see us for the dust.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
Ok, so where to begin? Not to dwell on the bad stuff, but to keep you all in the know, Peter is doing superbly. Over the past few weeks, we have been getting back into the swing of things. Long walks, lots of exercise, lots of relaxing, and I’ve been brushing the dust off my trusty camera. These are a few photos I’ve taken while exploring mum’s lovely hometown, Port Macquarie.
It seems like a lifetime ago that we did some work on the caravan. You may recall we replaced the battery and the battery monitoring system. Replaced the radio aerial, (the old one is probably still dangling off a tree somewhere 😊) and replaced the water monitoring sensors and monitoring system. Two weeks ago, we finally had the opportunity to test our new equipment.
We booked six nights in the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park at the Tia Falls campground. It rained the first few days and was overcast for all but one day; ideal conditions to test the batteries. I’m not as technical as Peter, so I’ll be brief. The batteries and monitoring system are absolutely fabulous. The lights and fridge were on all night, we charged laptops and camera batteries and I got to use my hair dryer using the 240v inverter, Peter even left the outside light on one night, and we never dropped below 92% charge.
We want to give a big shout out to Terry and the team at Battery World Port Macquarie, who did such a great job for us. If you need any work done and you are in the area, call in and see Terry. If you want more detailed information about the batteries, leave a comment and I’m sure Peter will oblige. You’ll be pleased to know that we can listen to the radio again, and the water sensors and monitor give us a much better reading than the ones supplied originally.
This next series of photos were taken at Tia and Apsley Falls, and some of the critters we met.
Our next bit of news is super exciting! Well, it was for us anyway. We were sitting around the Oz Pig at Tia Falls, enjoying a peaceful evening when Peter saw something moving very quickly through the trees. It took us a while to figure out what it was, guess what? It was a Sugar Glider. I know, I’ve never seen one before either. Oh my gosh, it was tiny and flitted through the trees like Spiderman before doing a death-defying leap off the top of a dead tree branch. We were entertained by these little critters, a family of four as it turned out, for three nights in a row.
Sadly I don’t have the equipment for night photography, and my best lens for maximising light is a wide angle, which pushes the subject further away from you, but if you make the video full screen, then look at the bottom right horizontal branch, you will pick up some movement and will be able to follow the Sugar Glider through to its last leap.
The last night we saw them, I had set up my camera and tripod with my 400mm zoom, manually focusing on the branch for the final launch while the sun was still up, then I pulled up a chair and waited until dark, clutching my auto shutter release button. These next photos are some of the worst quality I have ever taken, but I am ever so chuffed to have gotten them. Saying that, if you want to see some real photos of these little cuties, follow this link. https://www.wilderness.org.au/sugar-gliders
It couldn’t get much better than that right? Wrong! We were pointed to an off-the-grid overnight spot, twenty minutes south of Walcha. We parked on the banks of a little river, lit a fire and sat down with a glass of wine to enjoy the sunset. When what should slowly surface, silently from the water, OMG a Platypus. I kid you not, in fact there were two of them! We sat mesmerised watching them then you guessed it, I grabbed my camera, and this time there was enough light for some decent photos. Enjoy.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
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.
