Day 77

18 April 2013

Joel's mum has put a request in for a blog about how we live each day in the van and where we camp etc, rather than just showing you all the great places we visit! Now I thought this would just bore everyone but apparently it's interesting so here goes...like sands through an hourglass, so are the days of our caravan lives..

Currently we are bush camping so the only facilities here are pit toilets (my personal fav) and bore water (which you can't drink). This site is right next to the beach just over a big dune so the camp sites are sandy and a bit of low bush around. Not real private you can pretty much hear and see everything everyone is doing but we have been to worse. This is a shot of the campground...

And this is how we normally set up... Our van has a rear door (unlike most that have a side door) so we try and pick spots where there is bush behind us and not people! We park the ute next to the van so we can roll out the awning between the ute and van to sit under if we want to.

There is also an awning on the back of the van but its time consuming to put up and it's purple (which Joel doesn't like) so unless its raining and we need the shelter for the bbq etc we don't set it up.

A typical morning starts with tea and coffee (like most people)! Obviously when we are bush we have no electricity so it's gas all the way here (fridge runs on gas when bush). Boil our kettle on the stove in the van for tea and dishes etc.

With no electricity we still need to charge electrical items like phones and iPads so this is where cigarette sockets that Joel has installed in the van come in handy.

These were connected to the dual battery on the car, we just plugged the car into the van via an Anderson plug. Now we have solar panels and a third battery so the cig plugs run directly off that now. Joel installed the new battery under the seat at the table and a volt meter to make sure we do not run the battery too low. It's also good to know what things really chew the power etc and you can see what volts the solar panel is creating.

Now you might be asking yourself (probably not but just run with it) how do you charge stuff that doesn't have a 12v charger? The answer.... An inverter which you can plug 240v chargers into and it converts to 12v.

This is also why we purchased a new tv...it is a normal tv but came with 12 v adapter so can be run on either. Saves power because we don't have to have the inverter running as well. Oh and it has a DVD player so Joel can now watch his 4wd DVDs!

We still have a little table where we sit to eat....yummy!

I still have to do dishes, washing and clean the van! So nothing changed there. At the moment we just don't have much room when we pack up, we put everything into the van on the floor which makes it difficult to stop anywhere for lunch cuz you can't get into van without pulling it all out. So once we pull up to camp we pull everything out from the floor as it is the stuff that sits at the rear door, eg table, bbq, etc. and whola we are set up. Oh there are 4 clips on the outside of the van that have to be undone and then the roof pops up... And now we are done.

On the flip side, we explored Jurien Bay today which is a pretty little town, did some fishing, tried to catch a blue swimmer crab with a rod, and managed to catch the sunset!

Anything else you want to know....just ask!

Carly & Joel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Day 62

3 April 2013

Woke up from a very restful sleep, I even had a dream which I haven't had in ages so must of been sleep. I did however dream that I robbed Target with Heath from Home & Away! Haha it didn't work out so I just went back to work (at target) haha. This is what happens when you can't watch h&a all the time, you start to make shit up! Haha

This morning was fishing time. With everyone telling us we can't leave until we have fished, we took there advice and were out there early! Seems it paid off, this area is known for black bream and black bream we did get! Would have caught about 10 undersized (25cm is legal) but among them were some whoppers! 30cm fat fillety freshness was the biggest bream. We then scored a King George Whiting 40cm, it was a goer and other fisherman were trying to steal it from us, apparently pretty hard to catch here?!

Now I say we in all of this, however I didn't fish as yesterday I managed to snap my rod in half....now this would be a cool story....except I didn't snap it while I was fishing! It's a long story and I don't want to go into it however I am down a rod which means I watched Joel fish all day! BCF here I come!

Filleted the fish up while chatting to some locals. We keep seeing some of the same couples over and over again in every place we stop, bit funny, may as well just travel with them!

We have made some fish cakes for dinner from our catch today for something different.

We needed bread crumbs for the fish cakes, didn't have any bought ones so was going to crumb bread but we don't have power and inverter wouldn't run my magic bullet so Joel came up with another way......

We ditched happy hour today for a nice hot bush shower! Nothing like it when you stink of fish! We have the hot water system down to a bit of a fine art now, heating the bucket of water first then running it through the shower head. This guarantees there are no screams when the Coleman cuts out and shoots freezing water from the shower head!

Big happy birthday to my good friend Sez! Hope you had a great day yummy mummy!

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 50

22 March 2013

Today we decided to go on a touristy drive to see what was around here. One of the first things I normally do is google "things to do in......(wherever we are). So I googled things to do in Streaky Bay and 41 things came up, which normally when I do this only 5-10 things come up, so what I am really trying to say is that there are lots of things to do in this area if you are keen!

We started the day off with the Westall Loop Tourist Drive which is only about 10km out of Streaky Bay. This loop is 30 km long and encompasses a few attractions. First the Yarnebie Sand Hills which were not as big as Port Stephens but still big enough to sand board down if you have a spare carton with you!

Then smooth pools which is a lot of small and big rock pools that you can walk down to and search for little things living in the pools. Again we saw nothing but still nice area!

Continue the drive to The Granites, High Cliffs and Tractor Beach (you can camp here too). There is also the Cape Bauer Loop, Murphy's Haystacks and Point Labatt which you can see colonies of sea lions from a viewing platform!

So endless things to do if you have endless time....we however didn't as it was lunch time and we were hungry, so headed back to camp for lunch.

We then decided to take the boat out, even though it was a bit windy we thought it might be better on the water. Let me tell you if it's windy on land it's bloody windier in the water! This area also is breeding grounds for white pointer sharks so as we are heading out from the bay, Joel says "I just saw a big black fin come out of the water," and I thought yea whatever you are just trying to scare me...but he was serious so I turned around to look too.....luckily though it was a beautiful pod of dolphins! About 6 of them just hanging around the boat, pretty cool! Unfortunately the wind just made for a very unpleasant fishing trip so we headed back in.

Had an early dinner and decided to head back out on the boat cuz it looked a little less rough....it wasn't! So fishing trip no 2 was also a fail, give up and get some shut eye instead!

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 39

11 March 2013

 

This morning we got up before the sun to start packing up the camper for our ferry ride. While we did try and be as quiet as possible the neighbours probably weren't too happy being woken up before sunrise! Joel wound the camper down and it was about half way down when I realized that the front was going down but the back was still in full upright position! The roof was on a total 45 degree angle! Shiiiiittttt! We thought the winch in the camper had finally given way or something had broken, turns out a few wiggles and a few bangs later the back part fell to the fronts level. Haha classic Jayco. We were on a time limit being booked on the barge for 8am so luckily it did not turn into a big problem.

Headed to Sorrento and we were running early and made it to the barge at 7am and just in the nick of time to catch the earlier one so we didn't have to wait another hour! And we were on the ferry for sunrise which was nice....

Ferry is very comfortable, nice cafe where we grabbed coffee and nice lounges to rest in while the ferry does the rest.

Only took about 30 mins to arrive at Queenscliff, headed off the ferry on our way to the Great Ocean Road!!

Drove on the Great Ocean Road through Torquay, Stopped at the Memorial Arch for a photo, Angelsea, Lorne, Apollo Bay. What a great road, really, why aren't they all built like this! It should be called Great Scenery Road though I think as some bits do cut inland and you wonder where the ocean went but still spectacular!

Past Apollo Bay and then we started to run out of Diesel....hmmm in the middle of two towns we decided to press on to Lavers Hill as google indicated there was a petrol station there. On way to Lavers Hill we checked out a campsite at Aire River (probably not the best choice when running out of fuel) was nice here but was absolutely packed with people for the long weekend so headed back out on highway to continue to Lavers Hill.

Diesel getting low, but come up the hill and see petrol pumps....thank you....but wait diesel pump has a sign saying "no I don't work" and unleaded has sign saying "yes I work"! Not helpful, apparently pub down road might have diesel left......head to the pub.....doesn't look open, picked up diesel nozzle and there is a padlock on it! Panic stations, we are nowhere close to another town and we are on the red line! While we were sitting contemplating how we got ourselves into this mess, a guy comes out and says "you guys aren't from around here are ya?" He also had a key in his hand that opened the diesel pump!!! Saviour!!! He told us he rations the fuel as there is limited supply so depending on whether he likes people or not he will give them $20 of diesel or a full tank! Haha he filled our tank up! That was soooo lucky!

On the way up the hill we found another free campsite on the beach so headed back here to check it out with a full tank of fuel. Great spot, in Johanna, right on the beach, big open grassy areas, lots of friendly people around and it's free! Winning!

Spent the arvo setting up, resting, beach fishing and eating!

Tomorrow day trip without camper!

Big Happy Birthday to Rachael!! Hope you had a great day!! We did buy you a card but forgot to send it! So made you a card in the sand at Johanna, Vic....you can't buy this!

Carly & Joel

Tip we learnt today - instead of buying the chemicals for your porta loo, use napisan, it doesn't smell as much and you can then tip it into toilets as it is biodegradable! Great tip as chemicals are expensive! Thanks to two men emptying their porta loos or "dumping" (as it is commonly referred) while we were at the toilet block. You just never know when you might find out useful info!

 

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Day 31

3 March 2013

Sunday morning woke up to a beautiful sunny hot day! Yay! So after breakfast we decided it was time to chase the flathead again!

Joel had played around with a few soft plastic and cut tails off ones and superglued them to the other just to see whether they would have any effect... They looked ridiculous of course but the proof is in the pudding I guess...

There are moorings here for your boats along the waters edge and they cost $4 a day to park your boat in them. We made a discovery that there was old mooring points right up the end towards the rock point and beach end. We asked the lady at reception if you have to pay for these and she said she didn't even know they were there and we should have just parked boat there and not asked! Haha so that's what we did. So it was a lot easier this morning to go fishing as we just carried our gear to the boat, jumped in and off we went.

We started well, flathead straight up! And this continued pretty much all morning! We ended up getting 8 keepers ranging from 35-40cm, 1 dropped at the boat, 1 undersize and 1 that Joel cut the gills and went to wash it over the side of the boat and it slipped from his hands and swam away!!! Oops!

Almost bagged out and we were getting hungry so back to camp for lunch!

Joel loves looking at everyone else's set up and saying how great, good, awesome of a set up they have. I told him the smorning he keeps reminding me of Kath & Kim when they see anything and say "that's nice, that's different, that's unusual!" Joel does this with pretty much every van setup he sees "that's a good setup, ooh that ones a good set up, ooh very nice!" Haha it makes me laugh and is a bit of a running joke at the moment!

Anyway totally off track....had some lunch and decided to see if we could get some more flatties this arvo! Unfortunately it was super windy which we felt hindered our fishing and we only came home with one! Overall though 18 fillets later, gives us (or Joel) a few free meals so can't complain!

Last night at Mallacoota tonight, tomorrow heading to somewhere near Lakes Entrance.

I am also thinking about setting up a Facebook page for the blog....seems that it is a little bit annoying to come to the website all the time to read the blogs and the email subscription doesn't seem all that reliable....what does everyone think about this? Should I do it? If you think it's a good idea please let us know cuz even though I am not a huge fan of Facebook it is where everyone goes for the daily news of everyone's life.....

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 30

2 March 2013

This morning we woke up to blue sky and somewhat warm sunshine. No complaints here!

Market day today, Mallacoota has markets from 9 to 1 just behind the main street. Easy walk from the holiday park so we walked over to check them out. There was about 12 stalls selling a range of products from fruit and vegies to jewellery and arts and crafts. While we didn't buy anything they are worth just looking at in case there is anything you might like. We then headed down the Main Street and stopped at Lucy's cafe for breakfast. Scrambled eggs, coffee and a muffin, not bad, nothing to rave about though. Then to the bait shop to sort out a bit of new tackle for our rods in the hope that we may be able to catch something today!

New lines rigged up and we head out again. It was much calmer today than yesterday which meant we were drifting at a good speed to pick up some flatties....and we did! We got four all up, but 3 keepers. They have to be between 30-50cm to take them.

I did also manage to catch quite a few shells! Not sure what is inside of these but they clamp shut on the hook and you can't get the hook out! Annoying cuz they are heavy enough to make you think you have a fish as well!

This took us pretty much all afternoon so we headed in to fillet and eat them! They have a really well set up scaling and filleting section just up from the boat ramp. We headed there and ran into a nice man who showed us the best way to fillet flathead which was very nice of him! While you are filleting the fish there is so many seagulls flying around ya head, and pelicans just standing all around the tables waiting for something!

It is a bit unnerving having a mob of pelicans stalking you! We gave them some easy food (fish carcasses) and we were on our way. Joel had them on the frying pan in the weber before you could say "fry the flathead!" And eaten pretty much just as fast, pan fried in garlic butter fresh flathead....mmmm

Joel then washed his dirty car to try and make it look half respectable!

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 29

1 March 2013

First of the month! Which means we have been travelling for one whole month!

Woke up to mainly blue sky's but still freezing, one out of two ain't bad. Decided to do some early morning fishing....since this is a place for fishing! Put the boat in and headed out to try and get some yabbies (or nippers as they are called in Victoria) going to pump nippers just does not have the same ring to it! Anyway one nipper later we gave up and decided to just try the plastics. In Victoria you have to wear your life jacket all the time in the boat unless you are anchored, which does not go down real well with a qlder haha but here we are sporting the fashionable cheapest life jacket you can buy! (Can not say too much about Victorians as there are some Victorian readers! Hehe)

I'm still not sure about plastics, I am a bait girl and I just think its alot easier to know when the fish is actually biting, I have a bit of trouble with the squidgees....think I have a fish so reel in to find nothing, don't think I have fish and there is a flathead on the end of it! I saw the flathead and got a wee bit excited so started reeling like a crazy person up to the boat and the flatty shook its big head and got loose! We saw it and everything! Disappointing! And this would be the only fish we saw all morning.

Headed in to go for a bit of a drive and scenic look. Joel was searching for 4wd drive tracks and there are a few around here, however I would not call them 4wd tracks, more like roads similar to the Sunshine Coast after lots of rain, just potholes everywhere. So Joel got pretty bored of that so he found his own 4wd track.....

And got the car very muddy and dirty! Which was his aim!

Came back to camp and I went for a bit of a run around the park and Joel wanted lollies from the shop so I did that on the way. Realized I must of looked like a dickhead running with 2 bags of lollies! People were probably thinking I was running with them cuz I couldn't wait to get home and eat them! Haha ok I had a couple when I got home! : S.

Bit of TV, chicken pasta bake in the Weber (of course) for dinner and off to bed ready to go out and try fishing again tomorrow.

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 28

28 February 2013

Last night we had torrential rain. The camper is soaked and we are ready to get out of here! We waited till 8am in the hope that the rain would subside however we were not that lucky! Putting on our just dried raincoats, we headed outside to start packing up and get soaked again!

Packed up and back on the road heading towards Mallacoota, just over the Victorian border. The trip was about 4 hours and it did not stop raining the whole time we were travelling! There was not one break in the rain it was so constant.

Made it to Mallacoota and it was surprise surprise, wet and rainy too! We yet again donned our raincoats and set up in the rain! We decided to do a full setup with full annexe so if it did rain the whole time we were here at least we could sit in the annexe rather than being contained to the camper.

Set up and what happens....rain stops! Typical! Had some lunch, did some washing (the new age way), checked out the water and did a bit of shopping at the local shops. Mallacoota is right on the water and is known for its fishing...and that is very noticeable when every caravan here also has a boat attached to it somewhere! So tomorrow we are hoping for a fine day and good fishing! Will let you know if we get either!

Apologies for late blogs, we ran out of power in this shit weather so we are now on a powered site at Mallacoota which is a luxury! Another luxury that we have missed is a hot powerful running shower! (The Coleman 30 sec showers we have been having just aren't cutting it!) I jumped in the shower here, pretty much after we had set up, and it took all my strength to get out! (I really only did, for fear of the lady outside of the shower timing me and yelling at me for using too much water) haha. It was pure heaven and I am already looking forward to the next one! Oh the little things that seem so big right now!

Raining again tonight! Over being wet!!

Carly & Joel

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