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 76

17 April 2013

Decided to head off this morning in a northerly direction and that's about all we know.

We don't know what we are doing, so undecided about working and money sucks when you aren't working. School holidays is going to stuff us right up with busyness of places and finding good locations to camp.

Anyway good news on our way to "somewhere" north we ran into the pinnacles. Which we had forgotten about but glad there was some signage to remind us. As we had bought a national park pass back in Esperance it was free to see the pinnacles (normally $11) so winning, have definitely made our money back on that pass. Once here you can either drive around the pinnacles or you can do a walk to the pinnacles. As we had the van on we were not allowed to drive through so walk it was. It's a 1.2km track and it is only about 200m and you are at the pinnacles and you can keep walking or just soak in the surrounds. This is a cool place but really hot! About 10 degrees hotter I reckon and just surrounded by these pinnacles everywhere. All different shapes and sizes, ones with holes, one that resemble things and then just orange coloured sand everywhere under your feet.

Back on the road we found a camp site for $15 a night so headed in there. Now there were two access roads and we had to pick one, we drove past the ones with the signs everywhere (in hind sight probably not the best idea) and headed to what looked like a shorter route. Big mistake, the road was corrugated and then all of a sudden we were on a tiny sand road with branches and sticks hanging out everywhere onto the road which proceeded to scratch the shit out of the dmax as we headed through. Problem was once we were in there we only had the option to go forward not backward! The caravan also received some new pin striping today and we got about half way down this road and found a small turn around so went back, we decided we were better off going back then going into more stuff we didn't know! As you may understand by the time all this happened we were not in the best of moods and were ready to kill each other. Remember people who caravan together stay together! haha Drove back to correct entry and settled into our spot for the night.

We were a little late to watch the sunset! : ( always tomorrow... I missed it cuz I was too busy watching Edward on DVD on our new tv! Haha

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 33

5 March 2013

Well this morning started off with drops of water falling on our heads! Every time one of us moved it made the drops of water that had built up from the early morning dew on the canvas to fall onto our faces! Haha good times! Note to self, Bedflys should be put up at all times.

This morning also started with indecision on where to go next. We either go above Melbourne and around to the Great Ocean Road or we cheat?! We did a lot of research and decided to cheat! And cut straight across from Sorrento on the ferry to Queenscliff and straight onto the GOR! Will cost us the same sort of money in fuel to go above Melbourne and this way we get a cool boat ride! So next destination is planned for somewhere near Sorrento so that we are ready to hop on barge in a couple of days.

Found a couple of campsites at Rosebud and Joel's brother had told us this is a good spot for flathead and since we are killing the flathead fishing at the moment, that was our new destination!

Heading out we went through Seaspray which is such a great little tiny town. This is really where the country meets the coast! Little beach shaks right on the water, one caravan park and one small shop, that in one trip to this shop, you can.....pick up your mail, get some bait and tackle, pick up your groceries, get lunch and buy a 6 pack of rum and cokes. Best shop ever! However all we wanted was breakfast and they had nothing....so off to the next shop. Another point on Seaspray, if you are looking to invest money in property, look here! In 15 years I reckon it will be a tourist Mecca! Two secs out from the beach it turns into big country properties, sheep, cows etc it is just quite weird really! There is also these trees on the way out of Seaspray that are like big oak trees on either side of the road that have grown together to form a tunnel over the road. Very unique!

We stopped in at Rosedale bakery on our travels and picked up breakfast, nice bakery and there are some life size wooden carvings of motorbikes which are pretty cool and one of Ned Kelly out the front. We then followed the GPS along the highways to get to Rosebud. The highways here are very similar to QLD, just felt like we were heading down to Brisbane. The biggest thing I have noticed in VIC is that they are big on the tired driving bandwagon. Every few kms is a sign saying Wake Up! Or The only cure for fatigue is sleep, or Powernap Now or my personal favourite...Open your eyes.... My only question is, if your eyes are closed would you see the sign?

Make it to Rosebud, pay for 2 nights for $25 a night and head to our camp site. Set up and look out at our view and surroundings and decide what's the rush....lets stay 7 nights!

So we are here for 7 nights and it is going to be a very relaxing, fishing, walks along the beach, swims in the bay type week! Can't wait! We had a bit of a stroll along the beach tonight and need I say more!...

Goodnight

Carly & Joel

Ps. I have set up a new mobile site for the blog so if you view it on your phone etc now it will be a bit easier to navigate and you will be able to comment on posts. If you use an iPad to view the blog use the mobile site as well as it will allow you to comment also. Any other annoying issues let me know. Haven't had much feedback on the Facebook issue.....??!

 

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