Chesters Big Lap The WA Boom is No Bull S##T

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Well we have thought about this long and hard and decided that half a lap around Australia is in order (up the middle and down the west more details later). We got the bug from the GTG 09 and the fact that we are both doing contract work and our unit lease is up in June we have decided it is time to see the world meaning our own country. We have planned this as basically an indefinite trip meaning we are trying to save enough money for 3 months on the road without working and then a decision will be made weather to look for work where we are or head home (more on budgeting and the route later). We are both also at a cross roads in our carers doing the same work for the last 12 odd years so we both feel a big change is in order and some thinking time would be good.
So why am I writing this now you ask well I have found a lot of sites about peoples travels but not much on the prep so I figured I would put some posts down on what we are doing to get organised and how we are travelling.

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Re: Chestsers Big Lap Stage 1 getting organised

Decision 1 the vehicle

Well this decision was pretty easy we have the Prado we like the Prado we own the Prado and we can’t afford anything else.

I already have some accessories on the car that were put there for the 2009 GTG (Bull Bar ARB, Lift Kit Iron Man, Hella driving lights, UHF, 80 litre waeco, tyre repair kit, recovery gear, tool kit, assorted spares belts hoses etc)

When looking at this trip we have also decided that the following additional items would be required based on research and past experience.

Snorkel - as we are planning to do the Ooodnadatta again and the Gibb river road and looking at the amount of dust I had in the air filter by the end of the GTG thought that as well as water crossings it would be a good investment

ARB Air compressor – I borrowed a mates cheapy for the GTG and anyone camped near us laughed at the size and the fact that with a camper trailer it is a 6 beer job (1 beer for each wheel) I picked the ARB up on special at the last show down here so that is done

Roof storage – This one was a hard call because firstly I had to look at what I would put up there (spare wheel, 2 bikes + some camping gear) I also had to look at what use this thing would have when we finished. So as its main duties after the trip will be bikes and kayack I felt a bar system such as the Toyota heavy duty 3 bars with a bolt on basket would be the best for versatility, as opposed to an ARB style complete rack. Also the 800 dollar price difference may have swayed my way a bit to. So the plan is to have the 3 racks on with a smaller basket in the middle and the bike fittings either side. We have decided to throw the bikes on the roof as due to the camper we are looking at the bikes would have to be removed each time we set up and I am a lazy bastard. So I am just thinking apart from serious 4wd work they can stay up there when not needed (just have to remember not to go into any shopping centre car parks)

Tyres – The fact that it will just be the 2 of us and even though we are not going to remote we felt that the ATR’s (while having served out needs throught 2 sets) should be replaced by some LT construction tyres. We have decided to go the old BF’s simply because they are now available in 265/65/17 so I can keep by brand new ATR sitting on the back as a spare and I can use one of the ATR’s coming off the car as a second spare. I am undecided weather to mount the second spare on a rim or just take it as a carcass and get it mounted at a garage or even take some tyre pliers if required (any advice on this would be appreciated)

Suspension – My Iron man package currently is the diesel pack with what they call comfort / performance rear spring I may change these over to a constant load spring if the arse is dragging a bit with the camper connected.

I also need a brake controller and some Anderson wiring done for the camper trailer like the look of the P3 for ease of use.

There were some other accessories we were looking at such as winches, duel wheel carriers, internal drawer systems however we eliminated these as wishing items for the following reasons
1. We are sticking to the main routes so a winch would probably never be used
2. When we started to add these up the money you need could get you another month to 6 weeks on the road without working

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 1 getting organised

Decision 2 the accommodation

Well if you ever want to test the strength of your marriage go through this process (actually it is a good test for your sanity as well).

We learnt a lot from the GTG the biggest being that for regular location change a soft floor camper is not for us, now I know this will stir a lot up but this 5 mins set up time they advertise is bulls##t, the best we could do from pull up to annex up, kitchen working and beer in hand was 40 mins with and average of 45. On the way home from the GTG we were truly over the fact that we would do a big drive spend the better part of an hour setting up sit down and then laugh as we realise we need to pack all this up in 12 hrs time. Now granted it was only a basic rental but that is what we went on.
Another factor we found was that it was pretty dark and claustrophobic if trapped inside it playing cards for a day in Arkaroola due to the weather and even with the side walls up the kitchen had to be packed up and closed so not everything would not get wet.

So back to the drawing board, Ok soft floors are out so we then went and looked at hard floors liked what we saw but were not happy with the price and while a lot better than a soft floor you still felt locked in a dark tent if the weather got bad. We also were concerned how it would handle left set up in bad weather if we found a month or 2 work somewhere and we wanted a few creature comforts as this will be our home for anything up to 12 months.

Next stop caravans. These were written off pretty quickly as cause as soon as you mention off road the price goes up by anything up to 15 grand on top of standard. We also like the camping experience and are not grey nomads yet so were thinking if we can afford this should be just rent cabins on the way around with a bit of camping thrown in. Also the size and weight were an issue for me as most of the off-road ones we looked at were getting up around the 2 tonne mark and we only have the old diesel and I cannot handle putting along at 50kph all day.

We finally ended up with what we feel I a compromise. We have decided on one of those off-road pop top’s where the beds slide out either end, we went this way for several reasons.

1 Best combination of solid roof over your head but still gets the camping feel
2 Can cook and sit at a table indoors when the weather is bad
3 Speedy set up and pack up (proven to us by HG Monaro and his lovely wife thanks guys)
4 Reasonable towing weight Tare weight of approx 1100kgs also the smaller folded size does not create storage hassles
5 Front and rear beds for when we return and go camping with visitors
6 We actually found these to be cheaper than a quality hard floor camper (not by much but every dollar counts)
7 Off road model still gives us some freedom and we are happy due to our experience level we will not go to hard
8 Is more liveable in the long term (due to a delay between our unit lease ending and my work contract finishing we will be living in it for 1 month before we leave and also for a month or 2 when we settle so we wanted things like a microwave and 240 volt for cooking breakfast before work ect)

So the big question is what we went with. I will preface this with a few bits of information some of which most do not like to mention but I told myself this will be an all out thread.
1. As our knowledge both in this field in general and mechanical is limited we decided that new with a warranty was a must.
2. As we have no kids, no mortgage, minimal credit card debt and own the prado we were prepared to borrow some money for this purchase and go a bit more upscale than we would have paying cash

So the hunt was on Jayco was ruled out pretty quickly as we did not like the quality of their models and after talking to dealers there was a lot of ambiguity with what is and is not classed as off road with reference to their warranties. Coromal was scratched next mainly due to the fact that after being involved with yachts most of my life I did not want something constructed of fibreglass as there is no such thing as a little crack.

We ended up having made our decision on the following a Goldstream Storm RL Vacationer series. Now there are a few differences here. The vacationer series is new from Goldstream and what it is a camper based on the storm platform missing the bells and whistles namely, independent suspension is replaced with a beam axle, leaf spring shock absorber arrangement, oven is replaced with a simple cook top, water is hand pumped and to further keep the cost down Goldstream is doing this like the model T ford meaning any customisation is not available during the build process.
However we are more than happy as it suits our needs is more mechanically simple and came in just under our 30k cut off.

We are putting a deposit on it next month I did mention finance above reason being at the moment coming out of the GFC finance without a house as backing is quite hard to get, we found that due to the fact that because of hard times there is a flood of vans, boats, jetskis and other toys on the market driving the price down a lot of finance companies will not take the van as security wanting you to borrow on personal loan interest rates. To get what I considered a good rate from my credit union (less than 11%) I actually had to use the prado as security.

Now I know this all looks pretty compressed but the decision to do this was made at the end of the 09 GTG in July and we have only came to our purchase decision this month so that is 7 months of research, going to shows, driving dealers mad, scouring the net and having people at caravan parks calling the manager on you (true story) cause your sussing out there gear.

Next instalment is getting the dollars together.

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 1 getting organised

Budgeting and getting the cash together

Well now after all of the fun things the reality hit which was how the hell do we pay for this. Our first problem was as a lot of people do not like to talk about money is how much is this going to cost, we tried doing complex budgets but just got confused so we just kept it simple.

1 We estimated 1000 dollars a month on food and grog we spend less than this per month at the moment but we factored some extra in as food is quite cheap for us in Melbourne and this may not be the case in more remote areas This assumption is for 2 active adults who like their meat but don’t need it every night, and also like beer wine and the odd bottle of beam and would probably eat out cheaply (thai or similar) or get takeway 2 nights of the week.

2 We estimated 1500 dollars a month for fuel this is the one I am most iffy about so would welcome any comments but I based my calculations on the following.
a. the total trip if we come back to Melbourne is around the 15,000 mark.
b. I made a worst case fuel usage estimation of 19l per 100k (I have the old diesel motor with the 4 speed auto towing a 1500kg van fully loaded)
c I made a worst case average diesel price value for the total trip at a $1.65 per litre

Based on the above assumptions my money will get me about 900 litres per month which should get me about 4500 kilometres per month so I may just sail back into Melbourne on fumes now of course some months will be travelled more than others and I may get better fuel prices and economy (this calculation is stressing me the most I am now cursing I did not keep solid records for the GTG to use as a base if anyone can help here I owe you big time)

3 We estimated to keep it simple 1500 dollars per month for accommodation and fun so this means park entrance fees camping fees ect (camps 5 will be our bible to keep costs down)

4 We also need another 1000 dollars per month for ongoing costs being camper trailer loan, insurances, ongoing internet and phone bills etc

So all up we are looking at a total of 5000 per month as we would like to have 3 months where we do not have to look for work that is about 15k required before we get out the door. (I am however hoping that I have grossly over estimated and that may give us another month on the road)

We also have the moving and storage of our stuff while we are away however we have estimated our bond should cover this.

To do this we have simply followed a mantra by another couples website that travelled around OZ and that is simply stop spending. We are now living off one wage and banking the other, do not eat out, take lunch to work every day and If I do not have meetings I ride to work to save on parking fees (50k round trip but the great thing is ive lost 7kg since started doing this). Now as said in an earlier post this is how we are doing it and may not work for all circumstances.

I will end this one by saying this is one of the areas where we could find the least info as I suppose everyone’s circumstances are different, I am not a financial advisor and this is based on estimate not experience so the more comments on this one the better.

Next post where are we going to go

[WBY 1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close WBY 1]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 1 getting organised

interesting read, looking fwd to the rest

[HGMonaro Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close HGMonaro]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 1 getting organised

Mate,

Interesting read... I did something similar before purchasing our camper, although I didn't calculate the costs, more so the reasoning. I think you'll do more Kms than that. Based on the assumption that your going similar to what we did (1/2 lap via WA), with side trips and general running around we ended up clocking up 20231km. I also reckon you won't spend $1500 on accomodation and fun.... unless your fun component is heli rides everywhere you go

Cheers, Nige

[adam's prado Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close adam's prado]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 1 getting organised

Gees mate you have put some serious thought into this well done. I wish we were half as organised as you guy's but hey we like the odd challenge and we are definatley getting that. We might even bump into you guy's along the way in WA. Good onya for taking the plunge and happy trails.
Adam

[Bushbasher Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Bushbasher]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 1 getting organised

When we had our Jayco Outback Swan it easily managed: Pilbara (Karijini) x 2, Gibb River x 3 including Mitchell Plateau, Cape Leveque, Tanami, Gt Central Rd x 2, and a 16,000km journey through the centre and up to Cape York, returning via the east coast all the way around back to Kalgoorlie. The only real issues were dust ingress, no matter what we did it just got in. And $4,500 fuel bill for the 16,000km trip. Mind you towing the rig at 100 - 110km/hr with the old V6 petrol Prado wasn't going to be economical.

Just thought I'd chuck that in as you said you had discounted a Jayco. Yes, the manufacturer told us that "they're not supposed to go OFFROAD despite the name Outback." With kids it was great and comfortable. Now that the kids have gone, we have a compact camper trailer now.

[prado4x4 Member Find all posts View Profile Close prado4x4]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 1 getting organised

An interesting read. It's always good to know others thinking on these things. In 2008
I did similar and took three months off to travel a bit and had to budget as well. (Self
employed / contractor - no work, no pay).

Being in Perth, my run was slightly different (Perth - Kimberly - Top end of NT - North Qld -
Red Centre - Perth). All up I did about 23,000km, and it cost me a bit under $10,000.

Of that $10K, there was about $8K on fuel (this was when diesel was around the $2/litre avg).
I drive a V8 TD 70 series, and averaged about 15L/100km. Food/Accommodation/etc made
up the rest of the costs. Accommodation wasn't much, as in that 3 months, there was 2 nights
in motels, and about a week in different caravan parks. The rest was camping so either free,
or say $5 per night at national park campsites, etc.

Whilst your ratio's on spending might be different to mine, the 15K you're planning should
see you through for 3 months pretty well.

John

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 1 getting organised

Thanks John and others yeah the budgeting / spending is the one i am stressing the most about beacause we are packing up completly it is not like we have a home to go to if we have grossly under estimated

[jeff s Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close jeff s]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 1 getting organised

Hi Chester and Gen.

Glad to hear your still thinking about this trip, Well more than thinking.. doing.

We have just gotten back from 4 days on the south coast of WA (Peaceful bay) so know how good it is to get away, and travel, fuel, caravan park fees, etc etc.
With our motor (same as yours) but manual we have always used a maximum of 20Lts/100 at 110kmh whan planning. Thats if your in a hurry to get somewhere, when your just cruising it can drop down to about 15 or less actual... (towing our camper trailer). and camp fees the last week were $50 per night for the 5 of us, so with just you 2 it would have been $20 for the powered site at that C'park per night.
Diesel at the moment around here is $1.34ish around town, and $1.45ish out of town.
And if your keen on keeping the 5000K oil changes up to the old girl you better factor that in. $130 ish should see you with oil and filter if you do it your self (depending on brands of oil and filter). but more if serviced by a shop..

And you better say hi when in mandurah.. Tell Gen we have Laundromats..... :-)

Jeff and Linda.

(edit)... did you see this in the for sale section? viewtopic.php?f=24&t=6754

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 3 Lets go shopping

Well we had talked and talked and it was time to bite the bullet. So I figured as last Friday was my birthday I may as well buy myself a present and oh boy did I buy.

So deposit in hand and finance approved it was off to Goldstream down at Pakenham to have a chat. We were originally going to get the Storm vacationer which is the base model but found we would either have to wait 6 weeks for one to be built or take the one in stock with the deal it had to go to the caravan and camping show first SWMBO was not happy with the idea of strangers going through our camper

But then another option presented itself they had in the yard a fully optioned storm RL with all of the fruit that has only been used once for a photo shoot and has travelled about 1500k. It has all the storm features plus a full size Fiama windout awning, already wired for solar, hyland hitch, stone guard, inside stereo system (why not) and they have chucked a bag awning on the other side for giggles as well and the best thing they knocked almost 6k off the price for us so we came in under our 30k limit and we can pick it up this weekend cant wait

So now just some mad running around to get a brake controller, Anderson plug, insurance a few other bits and pieces organised and we are off this long weekend in Vic for a bit of a shakedown up Shepparton way to see how it all goes some more photos to follow.

So after the excitement wears off it is back to saving, saving and more saving for a July departure, however I have been thrown a curve ball and work is hinting if they can keep me I told them that I would need at least 10 weeks off to do a trip and they said something may be figured out so my next decision is weather to commit to coming back or stick to the original plan and just see what’s out there and hopefully pick up some work on the way.

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 4 Shakedown Trips

Well the time for fun has begun we have now had 4 shakedown trips in the camper and I suppose I can comment on the learning’s so far. Some annoying but most funny as I said from the start I will pull no punches so if you think some of this is a bit much well don’t read it, but a lot of people we know have asked me to document this trip for a warts and all approach so I will not hold back.

Well learning 1 is I am in the wrong business my safety managers wage is nothing compared to what a good auto electrician must make. By the time I got a P3 brake controller installed, wired plus and Anderson plug, solenoid, hot wire etc for the camper I did not get much change out of $800. One safety tip that the auto sparkey gave me that I took, is that cause there is a lot of current running around be basically installed an emergency kill switch in the dash so if I smell smoke or something I can shut it all down in an instant. He also went above and beyond as with this wiring plus duel battery system plus spotlights, plus fridge wiring he was kind enough to draw up for me a decent wiring diagram to show what has been done in case someone else needs to figure it out on the road. So I suppose the lesson here is that while it cost me a bomb you get what you pay for so a big plug for Jason and the boys at Jaymax Auto Electrical Mentone VIC.

Learning 2 Insurance, I thought this would be as simple as wacking it on with my car insurance that I have through the credit union wrong;. As is it considered a soft wall camper either the insurance company did not want to know or there were so many exclusions that it was not worth it. We ended up going with CIL as a they are a specialist insurer and the cover is Australia wide and it does not matter if you have no fixed address (another problem I had with the big 4). Another thing to be careful of is that some specialist insurers make you separate the van and the annex so check your figures as I could not work out why the initial premium was so much till I read it 3 times and realised the insured figure for the annex was 25,000 not 2,500. The customer service girl did wonder what sort of Tag Mahal annex I had when they went through it with me.

So with the car set up down to the dealer we go to pick up the lodgings. T the dealer we got some good tips and they were really great to show us how to set up and pack up. So hitched up and while nervous and excited away we went.

Learning 3 setting up the brakes. We went to a quiet bit of road to play with the brakes, there appears to be no point doing this until they are warmed up a bit as mine seem to be grabby in the morning until you get a k or 2 down the road then they are good. Now I don’t know what I did wrong but like the vid said I got up to about 40 and then used the manual slide to stop, adjusting power until the trailer brakes almost locked up controller set and off we go. Well at the next intersection when I hit the brakes and nearly ripped the back of the car off I thought something was really wrong, I then played around with the power setting for a while and all is now good after I turned it way down from 9 to about 6, so I still don’t know what I was missing there.

Learning 4 driving, being the heaviest thing I have towed at about 1.3 tonne fully loaded I was really nervous being the first time towing but my worries were unfounded just take your time and realise you will be a bit slower. I found 95 to be about the best speed with the old diesel 120 with the 4 speed auto, yes you can do 110 if you want but you can actually see the fuel guage moving. Currently I am getting between 14 to 16 litres per 100k towing. It is funny but I am actually finding the lower speed more relaxing as I just get in the left lane sit there and everyone else goes around. The only additional extra I had to buy was a towing mirror for the drivers side as I did not like the feeling of not being able to see behind me, however it shakes in the wind and is a bit annoying so if anyone knows of a good brand I would be interested. The only other thing I found with driving with the van is that I fatigue more quickly I think it is because you are concentrating more without the van I can comfortably drive 3 x 2 hr stints in a day with breaks (6 hrs total) by myself (as long as it is in daylight hours with good sleep the night before etc etc) but with the van I am looking at getting off the road in 4 to 5 hrs, this was proven when we had to drive back from Forbes NSW to Melbourne VIC in 1 day with the van which is 9hrs and even with me and Mrs Chester sharing the driving we were well over it considering the contrast in going up there we took 3 top days of just meandering up there and were off the road having drinks by 3pm every day. So this is something to consider if you are thinking of towing your camper to your favourite destination after work on a Friday arvo but each to their own.

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 4 Shakedown Trips

Shakedown Trip 1 Gentle Annie camp Whittlesea VIC.So after leaving the dealership with a car full of gear we headed to Gentle Annie about 4 hrs from Melb. This was the weekend that the storms were on so we had ½ hr grace when we got there then the rain came in and then it stayed in for the next 3 days. There was no power here so we ran off the battery so it was a good experience. A couple of things us newbies learnt from this trip are as follows.

• A pole holder is an essential not an option (one fitted the day after I got back) but remember to de bur the edge my hands looked like I had been in a pikey bare knuckle boxing match after that weekend
• A wind out awning is brilliant in the rain (quick setup)
• Some sort of sealable bucket is an absolute for when it is bucketing down and SWMBO needs a call of nature but it is to wet to go out side (us guys are lucky that I could just go out to the edge of the awning and aim)
• You need 2 tarps to put over your beds for when you have to fold it down with wet canvas
• Bed end flys (we have them) become an essential in the wet as you can fold the beds in while leaving the flys up keeping everything pretty dry
• Everyone will come over and suss your setup out (we kept getting asked what we thought of it and our response was we will tell you in another 12 hours)
• We had a bit of a giggle as there is some dead obvious movement of the camper when ummm dancing (wink) happens ops: .
• We found it easier to take our time and realise we were going to get wet packing up and have a shower before we left ( we rushed setting up and I could not realise why the canvas was weird over our bed till the next day I found I had forgotten some of the ties underneath.
• Make a list of boxes and things you need as a repack will happen

Also had an interesting experience when we got home. I had measure 10 times but found when we pushed it in it was 2 short for the door to go down by about 3 cms. I was fuming and going off my nut but found If I wound the jockey wheel right down it somehow changed the angle giving me my 3cms back so door shut we went to bed happy

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Re: Chesters Big Lap Stage 4 Shakedown Trips

Shakedown Trip 2 Forbes NSW

Well this was the longest trip we have ever done in our van so we were pretty excited and a little nervous we were spending 6 nights in our new home and if we did not like it for some reason how were we ever going to spend 3 to 6 months.

Our first learning happened before we even left the night before I crawled in the van to turn the fridge on plugged one end of the cord into the van and went to put the other into the power point in the garage and the bloody cord would not fit, some s##t about a 10 amp power point and a 15 amp cord or something so great I cannot charge batteries or turn the fridge on at home. If someone has a solution to this one please let me know.

I got held up at work so we didn’t get away till late so the first night we just went as far as Seymour which is about 2 hrs Nth of Melbourne. We arrived in the dark and everyone was sitting outside after their dinner watching us, we had a huddle in the car promised each other not to argue and to make sure we looked pro and 20 mins later we had successfully completed our first setup in the dark yeahhhh, a learning from this night is that for an overnight stay a drive through site is the go as you drive in, set up they are usually close to the showers and then the next day pack up have a shower and drive straight out.

Day 2 the fridges; learnt a couple of things today. As I run 2 fridges the Waeco in the car and the 3 way in the van you need to figure out what to put in which fridge cause if I had to go to the car to get something or vice versa cause I could not remember what I has in each I was going to loose it. We have now worked a bit of a system that seems to be going OK so far.

Car Fridge (80l Waeco yes if you were on the GTG I am a rummy and just like a car horn you can never find room in a fridge when your angry)
Beer
Frozen Meat
eggs
Soft Drink
On road snacks
Wine/ Bourbon
Oh and did I mention beer
Im sure I remembered the beer??

Van Fridge (Dometic 3 way)
Defrosting meat
Salad Stuff
Vegies
Condiments
Cheese
Some water
Leftovers

Now I am not really sold on this 3 way business quite yet as it seems quite fussy, I am used to the Waeco that I set and forget but when the 3 ways is on gas I constantly have to keep playing with this thing as it will sometimes try and freeze things, it takes a day to cool down, you loose a lot of internal space due to the condenser fins. I also found I wasted money getting the hot wire from the car done cause when you are running the fridge while driving, charging the van battery through an Anderson and charging the aux battery through the rotronics nothing gets charged!!. We have discovered if you turn the van fridge off just before you pack up everything stays cold enough for about 6 hrs so we just do that now. If the van fridge ever goes wrong I am thinking of just replacing it with a Waeco upright 12/ 240 setup and just getting a bigger battery for the van if I have to.

Day 2 cont spent the night at Narrandera and loved this pulling up at half 3 business and G&T by 4. I used to poo, poo the gray nomads but I think they have the right ideas. Learning from today is I hate bloody locusts and do not set up with a tree branch touching to roof as the scratching drove us mad all night.

Day 3,4 and 5 Forbes. Had fun setting up on the farm and doing all of the farm chores. The only learning we had after 4 days is that the foam matress is getting a bit hard so we put an unfolded sleeping bag under the mattress protector and this has made it a lot more comfortable







Some of the carnage from the locusts





Day 6 The long drive as said earlier this was the stupidest thing I have done, it is 2 far with the camper van to the point I was seriously thinking or stopping half way and chucking I sickie, we eventually made it home had some serious bickering pushing the camper back in the garage as we would have it lined up and then the jockey wheel would spin throwing it off course. So lesson learned anything over 5 to 6 hrs away is being done over 2 days with the camper. We are now re planning our big half lap itinery to take this into account.