Relaxing Weekend Away

We were invited to go camping at double island point this weekend. We thought this was a good opportunity to test out the camper on the beach and after a few busy stressful weeks at work we were looking to get away and have a RELAXING time. Our plan hit its first stumbling block when we remembered that Joel's mum was heading to Mackay this weekend and we would have to look after the dogs. At this point I wondered if we should just stay home because if you knew our dogs, well you'd know why. At least if your kids are noisy in a public place it's a little more socially accepted than dogs barking and carrying on. Maybe I'm just paranoid but time will tell. Also you can't have dogs on the beach so we had to modify our plans and thought trying out a caravan park on a powered site at rainbow beach was just as good, still gets us out of the house.

Friday came and weather warnings were issued, I am pretty sure the weather man waits for us to say we are going camping and then issues warnings. The girls at work proceeded to tell me about all the warnings before I left for the day, thanks guys. I wasn't really concerned at this stage until the radio news came on and tornadoes was mentioned in the weather forecast. WTF? Straight on the phone to Joel, "babe, tornadoes? Are you sure you still want to go?" Of course Joel didn't believe me so as soon as I got home I jumped in the truck and we were off. Another hour clicked past and another weather report on the radio. Secretly I was hoping that the tornado word was mentioned again so Joel didn't think I was just trying to get out of going camping! And it was! By this time we were half way there and no point of returning home now. Tornadoes or no tornadoes!

We arrive at rainbow and pull up at the Rainbow Beach Holiday Village, this is the one next to the BP right in the middle of town. We get our paperwork including a pin code to open the boom gates to the park. Heading in, we encounter a young guy in a van who is already in the park and is trying to get out of the park at the opposite boom gate. He's forgotten to bring his pin code and can't get out. He asks for ours so Joel puts the number in our side and reads the number out to the guy in the van. We go in, van goes out, no problem?! BIG mistake but we will come back to this.



Following our map to our site, everything looks really nice, turn a corner and here's our site covered with small children, lucky us, we had been put at a site right next to the pool and the BBQ area, people everywhere, tight little spot to get into, only good thing was toilets were close cuz I was busting! Joel lined it up and backed the trailer in, looked good to me! However Joel proceeded to pull the camper back out and said we are on the wrong side of the concrete slab...now I wouldn't have noticed this until I had set up the whole camper so luckily Joel is in control of this department. I'm sure out of all the people standing around watching us one of them would have said rookie mistake! Haha



We set up and this takes us around an hour. By this time we are starving and decide to head straight out to get fish and chips for dinner. You know how I said we would come back to the big mistake, well here it is. We proceed to the out boom gate and put in our pin code, boom gate doesn't move. I think Joel is just doing it wrong so I get out of car and enter it, still nothing. I look around for someone to help, everything is closed up. We make the assumption that this gate is broken and we decide to try the in boom gate to see if we can go out there. It works so Joel reverses and goes out the in. Next minute a man who looks like he's had too many beers and has no shirt on says "what's happening here champ?" Joel told the story thinking in the back of his mind, who is this joker and if he doesn't piss off soon I'm going to tell him to $&ck off. He said its not broken you have done something wrong, at this point we realised he was from the park management. Anyway to cut a really long conversation short, he just kept saying you have done something wrong and treating us like we were criminals while telling us how sophisticated his security was. Turns out your pin code knows if you are in or out of the park, so when we thought we were just doing a good deed for the young guy in the van we actually told the boom gate we were heading out of the park. So when we tried to actually leave the pin code wouldn't work, then we opened the in gate telling the boom gate we were now in the park when we were actually just outside of it! So we couldn't get back into the park that night and had to leave the car outside. Well this whole thing put us off the whole park and put us both in a bad mood for the rest of the night. To top this off the fish and chips were awful, the dogs were painful, the kids were noisy and we decided just to go to bed and wake up and try and have that relaxing time tomorrow!



All night dogs were whinging and wanting to go out, wanting to get on the bed, wanting to get off the bed, Joel couldn't sleep cuz he had worked himself into such a frenzy over the days events, I couldn't sleep cuz all of that was going on, so got up to go to the loo and get some fresh air. Took my pin code to get into the toilets! Yes you read right. Got to the toilet door, no glasses couldn't see any of the digits on the pin pad! Put in what I thought was the pin code three times and after each attempt failed and people were staring I gave up and went back to the van! Got my glasses waited for the crowd to disperse from the toilets and went back, pin code in, turn the knob, I'm in! Freedom!



At 5am when we were still awake from the night before and the weather looked like it was about to turn to shit, we decided to pack up and head home, the dogs, the pin codes and the weather was driving us crazy. Got up packed the camper, went to get the car to hook it up and remembered we couldn't get into the park and would have to wait until 7 for someone to be in the office. At this point we just decided to go for a walk along the beach and then had a coffee at the shak. By this time it was 7, Joel went in to get a new pin code and came back out more pissed off, cuz the guy said that he fixed it last night cuz everyone was having trouble with their pin codes and he was sorry about last night etc etc. we went in the in boom gate with our pin code, hooked up the trailer and went out the out boom gate never to return to that park. I really wished we had of just picked the simple caravan park at Carlo point where you don't need a pin code to have the simple freedoms of coming and going as you please and peeing when you want!



Driving out of rainbow, Joel suggested we go a different way home to test out the camper on a gravel road. We set our phones up to direct us home and lead us down cooloola way. Now in Joel's defence we had already been on this road in a commodore so we figured in a 4wd it should be pretty easy. How so much can change in a couple of years and obviously the floods and rain had made a huge difference to the roads surface!



There was hill climbs, one metre deep ruts, mud pits, water, trees down, pretty much every 4wdrivers dream along this road. We got lost, we did a few u turns, 2 hours later we could see in front of us a smooth bitumen road, yes we made it! Next minute clunk crash bang bang donk. (That is nothing like what it sounded like but it was a noise that made us look at each other and say wtf was that!!) Joel gets out, looks around cant see anything, I'm too scared to even look, I thought for sure we were done for and with the bitumen road just ahead we would have to be towed onto it! Turns out it was a d shackle that had rattled undone and fallen off the front of the car and had obviously hit a few things underneath the car and camper to make the clunk crash bang bang donk noise I referred to before! Thank god! We could proceed all the way home on the smooth bitumen road.... Only took us 4 hours but we are home now. Overall I think this trip was worth it to find out the things below....



Things we learnt on this trip

Check what Joel's mum is doing before we make plans

Don't take dogs camping

If you see boom gates at a park find another one to stay at! This could be challenging considering they seem to be everywhere now. Haha

If you do have boom gates do not be a kind person and give out your pin code to anyone that asks, guard it with your life

Always check where the van site is located, near pool, bbq etc and consider asking if there are any other sites available

If a weather warning is issued it doesn't mean that it will actually happen! We didn't see one tornado, one drop of rain etc

Always think before backing into the camp site to ensure the door is on the correct side, this will avoid weird stares and embarrassment!

If there is a pin code for the amenities ensure glasses are on before heading to the toilet, especially at night time!

It only takes us about 20 mins to pack up the van

Whe you are tired and cranky taking the bumpy road in probably not the best option

If you set your phone maps to walk instead of drive it gives you the shortest route however also a route that is undriveable!

If you do some awesome 4wdriving over 1 metre ruts you should get your passenger to film it or at least take a photo of the ruts as proof. This is a Big one for us because this blog will get pretty boring if I don't include pics!

clunk crash bang bang donk noises are not always the end of the world.


"Go out and make a difference!"

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First Trial Run

We had bought the majority of our equipment, had completed most modifications and we were itching to test our camper out somewhere.


Joel wanted to mix his love of motorbikes with the first trial run of our camper so we invited a few friends and decided to head to manar park. Manar park is a 4wd, motorbike and camping tourist park in the middle of nowhere really (somewhere near Proston). Joel also picked this spot because to get to the park you have to go on unsealed and corrugated roads, perfect for testing his new off road chassis.

The trip out to manar was long but the camper held up well and Joel was surprised that nothing went wrong with the camper! (nothing like a bit of confidence)

Set up took approx 1 hour, I know this because I sat and watched Joel and his mate put it up while I sat back with a glass of wine. In my defense Joel's mate works in a caravan repair shop and knows everything about them and how they go up so I thought I would just leave them to it.

We decided not to setup the annexe as it would be slightly unsociable to sit in the annexe for three days. That will have to be tried on our next trial run. After the setup of the camper the tide pretty much turned to be all about motorbikes for the rest of the weekend!

We made a great dinner for everyone using our camp fire cooking skills. We cooked a pork roast with crunchy crunchy crackling and veggies. And I could even make gravy on my stove in the camper...now you can't do that in a tent! We even remembered the apple sauce, so it was a great meal and I think everyone enjoyed it! Now I just need to learn some desserts that work in a camp oven.... (guess I will have plenty of time to trial recipes soon!)

I would have to say that the greatest thing about the camper on this trip was the fact that it was the middle of winter and inside the camper at bed time you wouldn't have even known. I was really surprised at how warm it was compared to a tent, I guess being off the ground makes a big difference. So when it got too cold at the campfire I actually had somewhere to retreat to!

Overall

Trip was great, Good little trial without too many problems. From this trip we learnt that we needed a UHF in the car to make sure that when the other cars we are traveling with are calling us grey nomads, we are able to retaliate! We learnt that we need to create a proper list to make sure we don't forget anything, eg. Chopping board, sharp knife, peeler. We also learnt that we needed to pack the kitchen items better into the cupboards and build some sort of separators in the cupboards so we don't end up with stuff everywhere! We learnt that if there is no sun the solar panel is useless and have decided that from December on there will be great sunny weather for 12 months. We learnt that Joel shouldn't drink xxxx cans as it gives him a headache in the morning and a restless nights sleep too. We learnt we need a step to get into the camper because in the early morning or late at night it is a long way down. I claim we also need a portaloo to avoid late night dashes to the public toilets.

"Go Out - Make A Difference"

 

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Defining Moments

There are a few defining moments that made this trip feel real, like it was really happening and we were really going to do it..... You can talk about doing something for so long but never actually do anything towards making it happen, 2012 is the year that everything we do is towards making this trip a reality....

4WD

When we decided to take this trip we had a Toyota echo and a beat up old Suzuki Sierra, neither of which were going to get us far in our road trip! The first defining moment would have to be the purchase of our 2010 Isuzu Dmax Dual Cab Ute. We purchased the Dmax in May 2012 and while it was pretty stock standard, we knew this would be a great car to take us on our trip, after a few modifications.

Boat

We had a Quintrex 430 escape boat which we had bought new and only owned for a couple of years. We had had some great times in this boat and putting it for sale was another huge defining moment. Unfortunately we couldn't have both a campervan and an awesome boat. So we put the boat for sale and it was sold within the week! We sold it to a lovely country couple from high fields and they will hopefully be looking after our little boat and creating great memories too. The money from the sale of our boat was to be the money to fund the purchase of all our required equipment. First being a home to tow around Australia with us. We didn't want a caravan and we didn't want a fold out camper trailer.....

Campervan

Of course as soon as we sold the boat and had the money burning a hole in our pocket we had to find a camper. In all honesty Joel must of spent about two months prior to this researching every campervan available on every eBay, gumtree, camper site you can think of so he knew what was out there and knew what he wanted! I on the other hand wouldn't have known what I was even looking at! Joel found the one he wanted and we bought it, it required some work but for the price we were willing to restore what was needed and go from there. I want to apologize to the family of kids we bought the camper off who balled their eyes out when we picked the camper up and took it away from them. Sorry but we are looking after it and it is getting set for a great adventure. This was a huge defining moment, when you see this in your yard every time you look out the window there is no going back!

Work

Most people would probably just give 4 weeks notice or 2 weeks depending on the length of time they had worked at a job. I have worked for my employer for 4 years and four weeks would have been all the notice I needed to give.... However I decided to tell them in July. Let me explain why...

Firstly we have a review every year around July and it's a good opportunity to sit down and talk, secondly I really like my bosses, they have been good to me and while I have returned the favor in working for them for four years, I guess I told them now more as a friend than an employee. I wanted them to have the best chance of finding someone to replace me. And thirdly, it was probably a more selfish reason in that I didn't want to carry the knowledge around anymore, I just wanted them to know so I could breathe easy and not worry about what was going to happen when I told them. Telling them would have to be the single biggest defining moment for me, it all became real and I felt like I could think about the trip without feeling guilty for thinking about it! My bosses were great about it really, considering and I will do everything I can to help them while I'm away if they need it! Joel was lucky enough that a year ago he was going to leave his work and they asked him to stay for another 12 months while they train someone so they were already aware that they would be losing him at the end of this year. So he's been thinking about this trip guilt free for the last 6 months!

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Go-Mad

Welcome to our first post and thanks for following us on our GO-MAD adventure!

We are a 26 year old couple from the Sunshine Coast and we have decided to go on a work and play holiday around Australia. We can't let the grey nomads have all the fun and we don't want to wait until we ARE grey nomads. So we are calling ourselves the GO-MADZ.

I like the word GO-MAD for a few reasons:

1. It is not a nomad (which lets face it is the name given to anyone with a caravan in tow)

2. I actually think we may have gone mad in quitting our jobs, packing up our life and leaving behind friends and family!

3. I googled Gomad and it came up with "Go Out - Make A Difference" so decided what a great slogan for an awesome adventure.

Our plan is to finish up work on the coast in December 2012 and head off on our trip after Christmas. At this stage the posts will be pretty slow and as we get closer to the end of the year they will increase and be pretty constant on our trip. We wanted to have a blog to keep in touch with family and friends while away and also hopefully to give others great places to visit, great stories, great memories for us to look back on and no doubt a huge list of what not to do!

Through this blog you will find Posts about the planning stages of our trip, our trial trips, all the mistakes we have made and the good the bad and the ugly of our trip around oz.

"Go Out - Make A Difference"

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