Around Oz the First Time - Chapter 2 - The Test Runs

Virgins with a van. Sounds like a recipe for disaster on a 3-month trip. Our very first trip from the van yard to our friend’s place (garaging while ours is built) starts with one of the front “tool” boxes popping open through the Heatherbrae roundabout and on the expressway. This was to happen again to the other side some weeks later with the result of a gas bottle bouncing into the bush. When retrieved we named it Dinty and its partner in crime Dentless. These names now adorn the bottles.

The trip home allows for Robyn to have her first go at driving the van. We live at Smiths Lake and the road into the town from Bulahdelah is windy to say the least. After a stint on the highway – a dual carriageway where trucks and other vehicles could pass without any issues, we turned onto the Lakes Way. Her confidence built on the expressway Robyn tackles the windy road. As luck would have it we see no vehicles in the time between Bulahdelah and home so she can do it at her pace, slowing to almost stopping to see the effect of a turning vehicle on the road. It’s a great introduction.

On the advice of others, we are suggested a couple of trips are required to try out the van, get used to it and iron out any issues before we get “caught” somewhere with no idea. We probably have no idea anyway but that will be no excuse on the road.

As fortune would have it we have the perfect chance to give the van a good go (or so we thought). As a Rotary member at Belrose Rotary Club we have a project where we have partnered with a town in the Central West of NSW – Peak Hill.  Some 25 years ago in the midst of a terrible drought we took food packages to the town and being Rotarians asked what else we could do for them. Thus a project where we billet the Year 11 students in Sydney around November, show them around and visit various potential vocational locations, then in May we return to Peak Hill and conduct mock job interviews with the then Year 12 students having reviewed job applications and work on their presentation skills. It’s a win, win situation, great insights for the students and most fulfilling for the Rotarians.

After Peak Hill we can venture out a little further to Condobolin and stay with some family who are on a small property just on the outskirts of town.

Virgin mistake #1 the packing of clothes. Running around like mad things we are always living in and out of suitcases. By default, we pack into our case and throw it in the back of the car. Yeah where is a suitcase going to work in a caravan AND what are all those cupboards and things for anyway not for clothes. Somewhat dumb mistake, but we are only learners.

 Virgin mistake #2. Fighting the road. Smiths Lake to Peak Hill is uphill and the day we set off we were driving into a howling westerly. The first leg to Newcastle is across the wind at which time we turn right and head straight into it. The push of the working class leaden’s my foot. The struggle to maintain speed sees the average fuel consumption reach 30 litres/100kms. If this is indicative of travelling, I will need to consider long range tanks as we will struggle to get any more than 450kms from a tank full on the big trip. With some of the legs at in excess of 500kms we will need constant refuelling stops.

We struggle along until Dunedoo. At this point we decide to have a break and here we have our first real sense of why we want to wander. The White Rose Café from the time you walk in you feel taken back in time to a place where service was everything. And here we are talking genuine service and not lip service to a genre taught in schools. The ladies treat you like family. The café is by no means full but there are plenty of other customers, yet you are served without haste. Needing a toilet, I am ushered outside and told up there, pointing to the doors in the distance. They are clean and nothing like the ones coined in the Redback on the Toilet Seat song.

A hot chocolate to die for and a toasty sees us relieve ourselves of hunger and we are on the road again.

Now that we have worked out we will do Peak Hill in one go, Robyn rings one of the 2 local caravan parks in the town to book a site. “Have you stayed with us before”, “no this is our first time, no our first time caravanning”. The conversation changes tone significantly as that country attitude takes over. “We will put you in a drive through site for your first visit, so you don’t have to back anywhere”. I think they were just as thrilled to pop a cherry of a virgin as we were to get into the park with the least amount of angst.

Arrival couldn’t have been more inviting. Run by a husband and wife, she dealt with the office while he, the park. Guided skilfully into place he was nothing more than confidence building so much so we did it on one go. He showed us all the mod cons of a powered site and we uncoupled and set up as best we could. He also suggests he can “name” our van for a small fee. There is also complimentary breakfast pancakes in the common area in the morning. We giggle to ourselves about the suitcase issue.

We decide on a very simple repast and head to bed. The morning is crisp as the Central West of NSW in May can be. We crawl out of bed and shower. The shower in the van is very satisfying but we realise that on the road we will at times need to be much more frugal with the water supply. Venturing outside we find the car windscreen has been cleaned, a gesture the owners do every morning for the van drivers. This experience of our first time in a van park has been quite special and a benchmark for all other parks we are to visit.

Again, the next morning the windscreen is done and the pancakes are on. Robyn avails herself heartily.

 Peak Hill and the Rotary project completed, its off to my aunt and uncle’s property in Condobolin some 150km further west. Uncle Lionel will hear nothing of us parking the van easily

suggesting it should be put inside the house fence. This means a tricky reverse through a gate and along the edge of the verandah to the end of the garden. Now with no disrespect to my wife or women in general, simply waving your arms all over the place is not helpful when trying to reverse. Uncle Lionel comes to the rescue with precise “left hand down” type commands and no panic instructions that see us into the spot with ease. He simply stands beside the window and being an old cocky having driven tractors, trailers and all sorts of farm machinery is more than a deft hand.

The van is in. In one go too. The women folk marvel.

Everyone wants to see the new van and we are more than happy to show it off. Uncle Lionel and Aunty Kerre are old hands at being grey nomads. They rigged up an old Coaster Bus many years ago and dimply wandered. Their stories of Finke, Birdsville and the like, part inspired us to do Oz, plus the fact Robyn has travelled the world extensively already. The Coaster Bus it is rumoured would only do 80kph downhill with the wind behind it. But as Aunty Kerre says – it doesn’t matter, everyone else can work around it.

Curiously another aunt and uncle who are to be visiting from Largs this weekend are somewhat later than anticipated. They too are vanners but this weekend are simply visiting. A phone call comes. Uncle Ian and Aunty Julie have run out of fuel just shy of Fifield. Uncle Lionel and I grab an empty fuel drum and head to town to wait for the next call, which assumes Ian and Julie can’t get some in Fifield. Of course, our waiting is done in the pub adjacent to the petrol station on the road out of Condo. Country preparedness to assist those in need comes to the fore and the Fifield station owner opens up the petrol station and fills the car for them and they are on the road again. We will pay out on them for running out when they get here.

For us quizzing veteran vanners is a godsend. Little tips here and there go a long way to enhancing the experience. We show them the expected itinerary for our first trip, put in place by one of the crew. All four have stories of places to go and see within this itinerary but more to the point and stressed by Aunty Kerre, don’t be held to the itinerary. There is so much to see, don’t limit yourself to a timetable. We muse the first trip will probably be more of a reconnoitre for later trips, but we will see.

The family want to give the van the full louse over. It is now we realise we do not have all the keys for the myriad of locks on the van. One in particular is the key to the outside table which looks a little like a collet spanner type set up. One of the uncles, fashions an unlocking mechanism and we “try it out”.

 A few days with the relatives, unfortunately it’s time to return. Because we had been at Peak Hill, we were forced to take the option of driving to Parkes and along that road to Condobolin. There is a shorter way and that is through Narromine and this is the option we take. A quiet road

with perhaps less trucks it will be good for Robyn to have another, this time extended drive with the van.

Apparently cursed by the no trucks time of her first drive along the Lakes Way, no sooner is she up to speed that we see flashing lights of a large load in the distance, and it is very large. A huge tank is being trucked somewhere. Given there is plenty of time to make a decision, the decision is to get off the road. No worries, we slow and get right off the road. The drought means the side of the road is very firm. The wave from the lead car and the truckie suggest we have done the right thing. Robyn’s heart rate slows, and we head off again.

It seems we are only just back to speed and Robyn squeals “the table is down” and sure enough the outside table for which we had no keys and Uncle Ian had opened with the bushy fashioned key had indeed come open. Again, pull over and stop. I slam it “shut” (remember we do not have the key for it) and Robyn sets out again. Not 10km further on she is trying to serve tea to the other motorists. The table has not been secured and she pulls over yet again and I deal with it with “100 mile an hour tape”. That will keep it until we get home.

Robyn has had enough. Everything that could have happened has happened and happened to her in her opinion.

Downhill and with the wind abated, driving is easier. I fight less with the van and the need to be somewhere and simply drive. Almost 1,400kms on our first trip. The 30 litres/100km on the way up has been replaced by 22 on the return. That’s better.

One of the things we are a slave to, is the internet. Robyn has an international business and needs to be available. This means a satellite dish. We research and find what we need at a caravan and camping show and arrange for it to be installed. The installer is at Tuggerah, so it gives us another opportunity to venture out with the van, spend a few nights in a park and visit family (my son) who live nearby. Given we had been working and staying with relatives in Condobolin there were lots of things we were yet to try out and the first service of the van had been booked. We wanted to ensure that we knew how to work everything, and everything was working.

We found a park not far from the installers factory and settled in. Again, the owners were more than happy to assist with positioning the large van for ease of newbies. This time we would have to, back into the spot.

OK let’s check out the TV. We get it into place and turned on, where is the remote? Searching high and low with no joy. We do however find the keys for the errant outside table taped to the back of a cupboard. Without the remote the TV will not respond to commands directly. Add another one to the list for the service. The entertainment system is a mystery but playing with it we get some responses although there are some settings that seem to suggest they will work to the TV but again no remote. Better have a quick how-to session at the service session.

The satellite is a ship to shore type mechanism with 2 actual receivers. One fixed to the top of the van and the modem which will actually pick up its own satellite of need be but has to be pointed correctly. So, if we go away from the van, we can still have satellite which more importantly means we can have satellite phones as we can use messenger to make contact should things go awry.

All things being installed its back to Smiths Lake. The fuel consumption numbers this time are under 22 litres/100km. Very proud of myself.

Its time for the first service and we have a couple of issues. There is a leak from the shower, I have had to fashion a protective system to ensure the tool box doors do not fall down, there are a number of keys missing (although we had found some taped away in a cupboard), the TV remote is missing and we do not understand the inverter or the sound system.

The keys are going to be an issue evidently and some weeks later as we head off for the “big trip” they still had not been delivered. I added a padlock to the fashioned holding mechanism to compensate. A remote is found for us and the leak is fixed (apparently). We get the requested session on the sound system and the inverter and now it all makes sense. Free camping, the inverter is best used when the sun is out to maintain battery life for the other requirements, especially my CPAP machine. With the TV working and the remote in place we are confident (as far as a virgin’s confidence can be).

Bring on Australia