The "Shakedown Trip" or "A Learning Experience"

We picked up our new caravan from Bushtracker and armed with our delivery instructions we set off on our new adventure.  The past few weeks have been a great learning experience for us both as we have learned some of the basics of caravan travel and living.  We have called our last few weeks the "Shakedown Trip".  This is the trip to give the caravan its first road test and get it back to Bushtracker to have the first service.  It's really enabled us to get to know our van, although there are still some bits we haven't tried out.

We drove out of the Bushtracker factory at Kunda Park and headed for the Coochin Creek campground in a nearby state park.  This is in a beautiful bush setting.  Although there aren't many caravan sites, we managed to find a place to park overnight and moved to a "proper" site the next morning when a number of vans pulled out.  We were still pretty busy buying "stuff" we would need during the day.  The evenings were relaxing with beautiful sunsets and entertaining bush turkeys.

After 3 days at Coochin Creek we headed inland and south.  The CB radio comes in very handy and we talk to truckies when they want to pass us.  It was good to get off the motorway and onto some quieter roads as Robert was getting used to towing 3 tonne of van behind our car.  We have found the Camp6 book useful as a guide to camping and rest stops, I think it's the traveller's bible.  We have also been able to find our own spots away from the crowds.  We spent a night at Cecil Plains in the cotton farming area.  Cotton "balls" were all along the sides of the road there must be some very comfortable birds nests in the area, all lined with fluffy warm cotton fibres.

From Cecil Plains we made our way towards NSW and crossed the Dumaresq River at Texas (Texas Australia that is).  We made our way towards Narrabri for the next night.

On the way we stopped for milkshakes at Bingara which has some very quaint art deco buildings.  The Roxy Cinema still has its original ticket office out front and Peter's Milkbar next door is one of the most authentic Greek style milkbars in Australia (it was featured in the Museums Australia journal).  The milkshakes are pretty good too.  

We camped overnight just north of Narrabri and were treated to beautiful scenery with the sun shining on the golden wattles which were in full flower.

The next morning we drove through the Pilliga Nature Reserve with more wattles on both sides of the road, through Coonabarabran and along a secondary road to Mendooran.  We realised we were getting low on fuel, we had really burned fuel on our way to Narrabri on the steep windy road with a strong headwind.  Not to worry, we'll fill up at Mendooran.  The theory was good and we made it to the town with plenty in the tank.  The practice was lacking though.  Mendooran was having a "scheduled power outage" and the 2 places that sell fuel there were "offline".  One was closed and the other, the general store, was operating from a generator and his pumps were closed.  Luckily for us we only had to wait about 45 minutes before the power was back on and we could fill up.  Lesson of the day - fill up the tank when it's half full!  Mendooran boasts a tennis club with a mural depicting the story of tennis in the area.  Mendooran has some Australian top ranked players in its history.

Our destination in a few days is Sydney where our winter clothes are in storage.  The nights are getting quite cold and we're grateful for the diesel heater in the van, especially at 6am when temperatures are below zero and we need to get up to turn on the heater so it's warm when we get out of bed later.  Another cold night near Mudgee, then it's through the Blue Mountains towards Sydney.  We're very happy that our storage shed is just off the M4 and Great Western Highway so we don't have to negotiate any nasty traffic.

We spend a few days parked in Girraween unpacking the storeroom and trying to fit out belongings into the caravan.  We thought we had culled pretty well last October but the local op shop and charity bins did very well out of us again.  Now we really are down to the essentials, but at least we now have plenty of warm clothes and a doona for the cold frosty nights.  We are also able to catch up with family (we are parked right next door).  Then it's off to Canberra to show off our new home to family there.  This is our first experience of a caravan park.  EPIC is at the Canberra show grounds and has large drive through sites - just what we need.  We are able to hook up to electricity for the first time and charge everything up.  We haven't had any problems with the 4 solar panels and batteries as we've had nice sunny days to keep the batteries charged up - another experience for us has been learning to live within our resources - water, gas and power - no problems yet.  Here we also have our first "dinner party" cooking a roast dinner for 6, and finding space to eat it!  It's good to know we have the family's seal of approval (for both the food and the living quarters).

After some very chilly weather in Canberra we're pleased to be heading north towards Queensland and warmer weather.  We've got about 5 days to get back to Maroochydore for the caravan to be serviced and to have some finishing touches completed.  We've also arranged to have the Landcruiser serviced by the dealer while we're in the area.

We drive through Cowra where we had hoped to see some cherry blossoms but we're a bit early for them.  Then it's on to Forbes where we camped in a very picturesque spot next to the Lachlan River.  After breakfast we drive past golden canola and to Parkes and stop off for coffee at the Parkes Radio Telescope.  This is a 65m dish and was the subject of the movie "The Dish" starring Sam Neill.  We've seen it before and it is still very impressive.  It's used 85% of the time for research and 15% of the time for maintenance.  The dish "floats" on it's mechanism and is only locked down in high winds.

From Parkes it's onwards and upwards through Dubbo and Coonabarabran where we can see the magnificent Warrumbungles in the distance,  back through the Pilliga Nature Reserve to Narrabri.  This time we camp at a nice spot in the Pilliga which has wattles, "egg and bacon" bush, croweas and scented boronias in flower all around us.  Although we are close to the road the trucks don't worry us as they thunder past along the Newell Highway.  The next morning we continue north through Moree and cross into Queensland at Goondawindi then along the Gore Highway to Millmerran, another popular camping spot.

We have booked into the Forest Glen Caravan Park which is close to Bushtracker for a few nights, but we have one more night before we get there so we stay at Woodford near Caboolture on the D'Aguilar Highway.  The caravan is at Aussie Traveller (the awning manufacturer) for the day so we  spend the day in Redcliffe north of Brisbane.  

Redcliffe is Brisbane's equivalent to Sydney's Manly.  We had a very pleasant day walking around the Humpybong Creek and along the Redcliffe Pier.  We also spent some time in the Museum where there was a special exhibition relating to the Olympic and Paralympic Games and local olympians and paralympians.  We saw a very good short movie about Redcliffe's history too.  Well worth a visit.

Our second caravan park was at Forest Glen, and it's totally different to the one at EPIC.  This is a resort with many facilities.  We managed to park in our allotted site which was a bit tight for our large rig.  We were able to arrange to stay in a more accessible site when we returned with the van the next night.  Another lesson - we NEED a BIG site for both the van and the car.

Thursday we delivered the caravan to Bushtracker to have it's nuts and bolts tightened and delivered our car to Sound In Motion in Nambour to have the tyre pressure monitoring system and rear facing camera set up.  While we're in the area we call into the Ginger Factory at Yandina to stock up on crystallised ginger and ginger beer.  Bushtracker fixed all the things we had on our list for them to look at.  No doubt there will be more as the kilometres mount up.  Friday Robert took the car off to Toyota for it's service and Cherryl tackled the washing while we had access to large washing machines in the caravan park.  We haven't used the washing machine in the caravan yet.

This morning we loaded up and hit the road again.  This time heading south past the Somerset Dam to Toowoomba.  Our destination is Rydal (near Lithgow NSW) where the Bushtracker Owners Group are having their 2012 Muster.  We are taking it slower this time and plan to arrive about Wednesday or Thursday.

We've decided that we prefer not to stay in caravan parks and will avoid them if possible.