That Pioneering Spirit.

Today, on another site, I was reminded of the tough battle that our convict ancestors had on arrival in this new country. To start off with, the food they ate had to be brought with them, there were no ready built houses, no supermarkets, no party of greeters when they first landed at Botany Bay.They soon  found there was no water supply, re-loaded the ships and sailed into Sydney Cove where the Tankwater stream provided fresh drinking water for the first four years until polluted beyond human consumption. A new country with strange animals, a different climate and an indigenous people they could not communicate with.
While at Botany bay, two French Man Of War ships were seen on the horizon, so two ships were immediately dispatched to claim Norfolk Island as a British colony. It had been observed by Cook in 1770, that Norfolk Island had tall straight trees that would make good sailing ships masts and Flax grew naturally there as well and would make fine sailing cloth. Both theories were later proved incorrect.Those ships were HMS Sirius and Supply. Supply would make ten journeys from Sydney cove to Norfolk Island. Sirius was wrecked on Norfolk Island in 1790 while attempting to deliver Marines, Soldiers Convicts and provisions.All on board and most of the supplies were saved but there was no contact with Sydney until another ship called there. The extra mouths to feed as a result of this accident meant that the colony almost starved.
Meanwhile at Sydney cove that became Port Jackson, building of the colony was underway. These people bought with them a knowledge of building Northern Hemisphere buildings that they were to find out later, did not suit this new southern climate.
Take a moment to think of those on the second fleet. The shipping owners were paid to transport these poor wretches before leaving England so, they didn't care if they lived or died. On arrival in Sydney many had in fact, died en route, many had and were suffering from starvation, scurvy and dysentery. Things needed to be changed and they were for subsequent convict transport fleets.

We did some family history research for a friend recently and she was descended from a first fleet marine, who had been sent to Norfolk Island and a second fleet woman. Through Ancestry, this couple now are linked to 37,000 family trees.
Do you know your ancestral ties? Where do you originate from? Are these your ancestors as well?

Geographic Points.......

In our travels over the last four years or so, we have been to or very close to some significant geographic points. being raised in Gippsland, the Southern most point of our continent at wilsons promintory, was never far from home and we visited there quite often as kids.  Now as caravanners, we love waratah bay and is one of our favourite spots for a few days rest.
Three years ago, Tasmania was our destination for about ten weeks or so. During this time, we visited Bruny Island and the most Southern lighthouse is at Bruny South. The actual Southern point is within the Great South West wilderness area and not easily reached.
 We spent our Christmas and new Year on the Sunshine coast and our path South lead us to another great spot that we have visited several times before, that point most easterly, of Byron Bay.
 On our lap around this great country, we came very close to most Westerly at  Steep Point within the shark bay world heritage  area of Western Australia. Monkey Mia is perhaps more recognisable, and in the same area. Dirk Hartog island is also close by. The road reports to steep point were not good, so we opted for the softer option of forty kilometres of deep, soft sand and corrugations in and out to Cape Peron in the Francois Peron national park.
Further around on our lap, just after we had arrived on the East coast we decided to head for Cooktown towards Cape York. We found out though, it was more than a couple of days drive to the cape and opted out this time. Cooktown has its own special type of beauty and history that I am sure we will see again.
North south east and west, we have most of these covered....but wait there's more...central most point of the Australian continent is West of Alice Springs and within the Hermansberg area. We have been to Alice and some of those West Macdonnel ranges but not quite the central point.
In Victoria, we hear the term of central Victoria used to describe the area, generally around Bendigo, the actual central point of Victoria is near the old Mandurang church, about ten kilometres out of Bendigo. These points are readily available if you research them and plan a visit.

Aussie Traveller

In the building of our On The Move Grenade Series 2 caravan, we chose to have an Aussie Traveller awning, arms, mesh screens, windows and door. These great products have proved to us again, just how good the Aussie Traveller products are. Superior in every way  to say the least. We have had several comments about the screens on our windows. We have also been victims of Midgie attacks, but whilst being outside of course. We reckon that we can now predict the approximate time for these little devils to be around so we take ourselves indoors and out of their target zone. The screens handle them, no problems at all. We also have a set of the Aussie Traveller curved roof rafters for the awning. We usually install these when we are going to be in the same spot for over two nights. They reinforce the awning really well and give it a great fall from the roof line.

http://www.aussietraveller.com.au/pages/products

Ibis 3 Air Conditioner by Air Command

Hot weather in the North, but we have had cold nights. Our Ibis 3 Air conditioner has been able to cope with both extremes, and does it very well. We are most impressed by this system that comes with a remote that has an easy to read  digital display. This digital display shows the temperature set by you, fan speed indicator and mode as well as the current time. The temperature can be set and the unit left to maintain that temperature whatever mode you have chosen. The unit heats and cools our 23'6" On The Move Grenade Series 2 caravan very well and does it all silently. we have spoken to many people on the road about our van and the air conditioner is a popular topic. People have had trouble with noise, fans sounding as if they are out of balance, all types of complaints. Nothing from our Ibis 3. The panel has a low profile, so it doesn't intrude too much on the roof line. It has a series of led lights that indicate mode with the heater mode showing red. We chose to clean the easy to remove, internal filter after the Gibb River Road, this was washed and dried very quickly.

http://www.aircommand.com.au/cmsfiles/pdf_files/Ibis-3.pdf

Dometic Toilet

One of the companies that has assisted us in the build of our On The Move Caravans- Grenade series 2 has been Dometic. They are well known throughout the caravan and RV industry for a number of products.
In our case, we have a new ceramic toilet and I am going to review it as well as i can.
Not much of a challenge, you say, well here is where we differ. The Dometic ceramic Bowl toilet is a whizzer, pun intended! No, really its a beauty. To start with the ceramic finish is shinier that we have seen before in a RV toilet. The shiny surface means that it is easier to clean, means that you are not going to spend a great deal of time in maintenance of this wonderful product. The flushing system is also a little different from what we are used to. The flushing system is what you would expect, push the button in the middle and it works as per always. There is a warning light that indicates the need to empty the tank, soon, later, and NOW..we have only acted on the first warning, Orange.
the tank itself comes with an extender handle and is equipped with two trolley style wheels so rather than carrying the tank to the emptying point, it can be wheeled.

Every Picture Tells a Story

I think this quote from Flynn of the Inland, founder of the Royal flying Doctor service and born at Moliagul in Victoria, sums it up pretty well....

The Wave - a poem by Marg.

The Wave                    4/5/2015
Born thousands of ocean miles away, it has travelled far to arrive on this beach. Through sun and storm, cold and warm, to a destiny set by the moon.
At last, the welcoming shore of the new land.
Now the wave grows, swells, liquid but solid, dark green, lifting higher to a sharpening edge.
Now a tiny spray starts on its peak before it topples over with its own powerful weight. It is suddenly white and cascading; crashing down on itself and sucking out energy.
Now it runs forward, flat, ever weaker, until it’s a patch of ragged lace on the sand, only to be pulled back into the sea.
Just like that it is over, it’s gone.
But Mother Ocean goes on; for her, it is never over. She is infinite, and as beautiful as each of her waves.

Every Picture Tells A Story

Kumho tyres in soft sand

Yesterday we wanted to go fishing and local knowledge tells us that the salmon holes are on the main beach about 5 kilometres away and "you'll need to drop your tyre pressures." So, further enquiries suggested 15-20 psi for running along the beach in the pure white, soft sand. This was the first time that I had attempted to use my tyre de-flator. I have been carrying this for at least the last three years, you know, "It'll come in handy one day." Well yesterday was the day. The instructions had glued themselves to each page and when pried apart, it took half of the instructions with it! Who needs instructions anyway?

Figuring out exactly how this tool took a little longer than I thought, fortunately I was able to use an Allen key to assist. That's not in the instructions. Anyway, tyre gauge in hand, the deflator and Allen key. Got all the way around to the last tyre and the deflator worked as it should. Attach the tool to the valve, screw the outer handle anti clockwise, this removes the valve, pressure of the tyre shows by the needle on the gauge, hissing of air indicates air escaping, needle falls to desired level, screw outer handle clockwise to replace and tighten valve, withdraw the deflator and replace valve cap. DONE.. My Kumho road venture SAT tyres are brilliant in sand. They are rated at 70% road use, 20% sand and 10% mud. Let me tell you they worked really well in this sand. Other vehicles that had turned around, found it difficult to get out of the sand ruts then turn around on the softer less compacted sand. We pulled out of the ruts and did a normal turn back into the ruts again with no problems at all. To inflate the tyres again, I will be using the onboard compressor built in to our On The Move Caravans Grenade Series 2. This is normally used for the air bag suspension but has the air hose and external fitting included for the purpose of adjusting the tyre pressures on the van or, in this case, our Toyota Land Cruiser.

Satellite tracking

Having a substantial investment in a caravan/RV and then to have that property stolen can be extremely traumatic. We often see the plight of victims of this sort of crime, posting photos of their vans on social media to assist with a speedy return. We have the usual tow ball lock and use it rarely. As we are on the road permanently, our van is usually only left while in a caravan park and we trust the local security of that park. If we choose to stay in a National Park or bush camping, we rarely leave the van unattended and if so, that's when we use the trailer tow ball lock.
Melbourne Caravan and Camping Supershow is where we first saw a demonstration of the new Al-Ko Anti-Theft System.This little jigger stays hidden in your caravan/ leisure vehicle and is hard wired into the house battery system. The system also carries on board battery backup should the house battery system fail or be disconnected. The ATS is easily monitored through the Black Knight tracking systems website and is accurate within 5 metres. The system does not need a separate sim card as it uses whichever telco provider is nearby and satellite technology.
Fleet owners can use the Al-Ko ATS system to manage their vehicles as well. For instance, "fences" can be programmed into the system restricting the vehicle to, say, a 250 klm radius. If that vehicle exceeds the range, then an alarm is sent to the fleet controller alerting them to the fact. Our system can go to sleep while stationary and starts up again with movement. Daily tracking movements can be checked while parked for the night.
We hope that we never have to call on the device in the case of theft, but it's great to know that it is on board and actively looking after our investment.

Westward Ho!!

The Melbourne Caravan and Camping Supershow was held from 11th March to the 16th and our new On The Move Caravans Grenade series 2 was on display for the duration of the show. Due to unforeseen circumstance we were unable to be at the show for the entire time but did manage to attend for the last two days. During this time, we spent several hours at the On The Move stand talking to people and showing them through our new and exciting caravan. The van then went back to the factory as it was not quite ready for handover. That happened on the 16th March at 31  Randor Street Campbellfield, where the official handover and orientation by Lennie Mifsud took place. It was then that we hitched up and towed our new van back to Treetops scout camp at Riddells Creek for the swap over from our old van to the new one.

 We were really keen to get on the road, but the changeover took a little longer than we expected. A visit to our storage facility was required and after a goodbye to our friends and family, we headed to South Australia by way of Mildura and the Riverland. 

CES, Caravan Electrical Solutions, from Campbellfield do all the electrical work for On The Move Caravans. They also do electrical work for quite a number of other caravan builders around the area. Jason and his company not only fit but supply all and everything to do with the electrical side of our build. This eliminates the need for the builder to source the different products from the various suppliers when Jason at CES can do the lot. In our caravan, they have installed their very own 240 volt power points which have a silver buff backing plate and black socket and switches, which suits our decor to a tee. When we go off power, our 240 volt outlets switch over, by way of the invertor, to stored power. We have given this a trial run and it's all good. We maintained a good strength of voltage through our 3 x 120 amp/hour batteries and nothing faltered.

It was great being able to pull up in a wayside stop on the Eyre Highway while crossing the Nullarbor and Marg was still able to have her brewed coffee.

On the Road with On the Move caravans

Having now returned from our Christmas and New Year on the Sunshine coast with our daughter and family, we are now gearing up for another exciting time in our lives with our new caravan. Prior to our trip North, we had been planning with Lennie Mifsud and Kimberley Duncan from "On The Move" caravans at Campbellfield regarding the build of a new Grenade Series 2 caravaan. This van had recently been judged by Caravan World magazine as the "Caravan of the  Year" in the 80K+ bracket. Our meetings have resulted in a fantastic build including new innovations not attempted or available in previous models.We hope to bring you more up to date photos including reviews on the van and its components over the next twelve months or so.

Sunshine coast over christmas new year

Of course we had a great time visiting our family while we were camped at Maroochy beach caravan park. We had a couple of special times when parents went out to the cinema and we had a chance to look after the two grandchildren, a sort of bonding, if you like. We are not too sure when we will be back and kids change very quickly if they're not living under the same roof as you. we did find that the humidity was hard to take. don't get me wrong, we can take the heat alright, i used to work in 35-40c dressed in period costume and I didn't think anything of it. The difference here is it was a dry heat and this heat carried about 72%moisture..Umm, no thanks.
We have moved South now and having a look at several areas on our way to Glen Innes where we currently are, still like the availability of the coast and perhaps when we get a little further South, may escape the humidity. We both loved Ballina and the area, Yamba and Iluka are both very attractive as well. Sandflys are another problem for me and the mangroves around Ballina may harbour hordes of them. Don't know, we will see...A couple of quiet days in Glen Innes and off to Armidale and Nundall tomorrow. We thought we may go back to highway one through the Hunter valley.......

I would like to title this photo from a fairly well known country song..Some days are diamonds, some days are stones....

Park and campsite etiquette

I have been thinking about writing an article on the above and would like to see what basic "rules" that others live by in their particular situation... Thoughts??
You know the kind of things we all talk about or do automatically...

It doesn't take a lecture from us on what TO do and NOT to do in your own particular camping area, BUT, some basic rules prevail...
Please don't put up stray clothes lines between trees, as it hangs other campers after dark, especially us taller ones.
Please keep your campfire conversation volumes a little lower after you see others going off to bed.
Please turn your generator off after 9.00pm

Coincidence or fate?

A couple of years ago, we booked into the Inglewood caravan park for about a week. The park advertises that it has en-suites to each site and that, in a small town like Inglewood, had a certain attraction. We settled in for a bit more investigation of the area and perhaps some gold fossicking. The couple on the next site had said hello and had gone off early most days and we were settled inside on their return on most nights. The next day, I noticed their van had gone and they had left several items around the doorway of their en-suite. We went out exploring and returned and solved the mystery of the surplus stuff. They had returned that afternoon with a NEW van and that's when their problems started because the new van didn't have the storage that their old van did, so there was a surplus. After introductions and the explanation of the problem we settled down to a pleasant happy hour. As it was, we left the next morning and thought it was probable that we would meet again.

A year or so later, we went back to the Richmond Queensland Lakeview caravan park and I was on my usual exercise program, that is I walk around the park and lift weights at the same time, usually around 4:00pm and 375ml at a time. A voice calls to me "Don't I know you? Are you a fossicker?" Well, yes on both counts, it was Terry from Inglewood caravan park. They were there to explore the dinosaur diggings that we were there for, again. A good catch up that night and we were off again heading south to family and they were heading to the coast for the same reason.

We've been back at Inglewood for four days of mostly rain and inside work. Today, Friday, the finest of the last few days and I see a familiar van and ute pulling in to a site not too far from us and called Marg straight away. Guess who? Terry and Jen again back where this relationship started.... Coincidence or fate?

Kumho tyres

Those of you who are regular followers of our Blog would be familiar with our story on the trial and reporting of the Kumho Roadventure SAT on our Landcruiser. Well after another pleasant visit to Tyrepower Sunbury, we had the tyres rotated and balanced and a visual check to see how they are going after 35,000klms they are performing as stated. by that I mean they are going really well. Of course they are showing signs of wear and degradation but not to the extent that I have seen other types of tyres after that many kilometres.They still have a lot of "meat" on them.
The rain over the last week or so has also given us a chance to try these tyres in the mud. We are currently in the goldfields of central Victoria and the back roads are usually gravel but with over 45mls of rain they have turned to a much stickier consistency. Needless to say, this is NOT extreme 4wdriving but the tyres worked a treat anyway. No sign of slippage or skidding, or any other problem. Now we have covered the whole gambit, bitumen surface, with hardly any road noise, deep fine sand, no need to engage low range or to adjust tyre pressures, and now light mud on clay based roads after heavy rain...All Good..

Treetops Scout Camp

There is something special about Treetops Scout Camp at Riddells Creek. We have stayed here several times over the last couple of years and keep coming back. Is it the serenity? Yes Is it the proximity to Melbourne? Yes Is it the scenery? Yes

There is no doubt about it, treetops ticks all the boxes and being less than 40 klms from the Melbourne GPO makes it ideal for that stopover to and from Tassie, the ideal spot for that family reunion with both cabins and bunkhouse style of accommodation along with the expanding area of powered sites.

This time. we have based ourselves here for the Caravan and Camping Supershow at Caulfield race course. We simply drove the couple of klms back into town and caught the regular train service through to Southern Cross station, hopped aboard another train heading to Caulfield and were there in about an hour.We also have family at nearby Romsey so the location of Treetops has been great.

It's much dryer here than we have ever seen it before. Compare the two photos. Top one is current and the other photo was taken in November 2013.

Clear View Mirrors

Have a look at how well these mirrors line up with the outside of the caravan. You cannot believe how brilliant these are compared to the clip on slide down the inside of the windows and clip on to the bottom of the door type mirrors that I used to have. The electronics just join up click, click. Mirror adjustment is still from the inside because their is no cut and shunt with wiring. The bottom section of the mirror is ALL blind spot so you can see vehicles approaching from behind on either side, no problems. These are GREAT.make your enquiries through your local stockist, auto shop or give them a call at Campbellfield 03 9308 8053 and of course, tell 'em Bruce sent you

Every picture Tells a Story

Every Picture Tells a Story

This is what the last gateway lead to.....