Another week away

Possibly our 2nd last opportunity for a quick break before we leave for a year or more.

We travelled to the south coast town of Moruya and stayed at the South Headland Campground near the airport. (Moruya, famous for... did you know?)

There's about 30 permanent stayers there; down from a high of 90 a year ago. A riot on NYE last year, including a stabbing, saw about 60 people moved on.

Another (last?) opportunity for us to tinker with solar and awning and car fridge. 

Three months to go!

   

Car fridge

Getting close to being ready to travel!

We modified the ute drawers to accommodate a fridge on board. When we're travelling, we'll sometimes leave the van behind and take the ute and a tent. For example, we'll likely leave the van at Cooktown or similar rather than drag it all the way to the tip of Cape York.

When we upgraded to Lithium and a BMS in the van, we ended up with a solar controller so wired this up to a battery and solar panel. When travelling the fridge will run off the DC-DC Anderson point, and when parked will run off the panel I've installed on the roofracks.

It's all removable so I can leave it behind at home for when we're not travelling for extended periods, or can lend it to one of the kids if they are heading off camping for a weekend. 

Another couple of tweaks - Truma HWS and a basket for firewood.

Without doubt, the most frustrating thing in our setup was the inconsistent experience using the gas Truma HWS.

It would sometimes take 10 or 20 attempts to get the hot water up to temperature and staying on. This is no longer the case.

I made a small modification to the cowl, as shown below. 

We also made a firewood basket for the front of the van. As we're heading in to a campsite, we often stop for wood 5km down the road where it's less likely that people have grabbed wood for their campfire. We used to throw this in the back of the ute but now we can chuck it in the basket and not worry about ants and insects and crap all through the canopy. Much better.

We shaved a bit more weight by ditching the sliding door to the toilet and installing a shower curtain instead, and added an awning to the BT-50 for when we are camping without towing, or having a day on the beach etc.

Lithium Test

Tested the lithium batteries while camping in the Belanglo Forest for a few days (yes, queue the Ivan Millat jokes). Working so well we ducked into Bowral and bought a toaster. 

We had thought we'd use gas for making toast and boiling water, but since the Lithium batteries and BMS are doing such a good job, it makes sense to preserve something we can’t top up for free any time we want (gas) and use power when we can. 

These state forest free camps are just beautiful.

Lithium upgrade

We bought 2 x 100ah Redarc lithium batteries and a Redarc BMS at the camping show at Easter. Yes, I know, they are more expensive but we really didn’t want any problems when we are remote so we are happy with the decision. 

Had these installed a few weeks ago. 

Tested in the driveway, making coffee, running lights all day, boiling a kettle etc… Excellent!

Will test properly in the coming school holidays. 

We’ve both officially advised our respective employers that we intend to retire; Robyn at the end of the year (2023) and me on 1 March 2024. 

We plan to rent out the house and head off mid March. We’ve started roughing out a plan and a few places to be by certain dates. Getting excited!

More little ideas...

A few more tweaks.

The manufacturer of the van was a little lazy when they installed the external kitchen, closing the back of the kitchen where the slides extend to.

I won back about half a cubic metre of previously dead space - not necessarily to fit more stuff in, but rather to distribute what we have and want a little better.

The van came with 2 x 4.5 kg gas bottles. I swapped out one of these for a 9kg bottle so I have more capacity as well as flexibility.

We had previously bought a 120L water bladder, so that if we are staying in one place for a week or more, I can run into town with just the bladder in the car, fill that up and come back to the van and top up the tanks. 
We tested that out - the connections I made so I can run it into the van tanks work nicely :)

Christmas 2022

After Christmas at home we headed off on 27/12/22, destination Bundaberg.

We headed up the New England to Gunnedah for a few nights. We were worried the roads would be in a poor state after all the recent rain events, but they were OK.
 

Our water pump failed, and with it being close to New Year, struggled to find a local repairer open so from Moree headed east to Toowoomba where we had the pump replaced.

Made our way free camping through Kingaroy 

  

and Childers and settled in at Moore Park Beach, on the coast just north of Bundaberg for a relaxing week by the beach.

We made our way home via a gorgous free camp near Gympie and the coast, parking up in driveways and catching up with friends on the Gold and Tweed Coasts as well as Forster, and a final free camp just near Bellingen as well.

A good three weeks away.