Just the World as We See It
Pulled into the southern bank of the Murray River downstream from Echuca after we found a top spot for the two boats to moor. We had dinner on board our own boats before gathering around the roaring fire that Red Ben had prepared for us. We were entertained by Lachie’s singing while Black Ben accompanied him on guitar. Really fun night that everyone seemed to enjoy. Went to bed at a reasonable hour as we prepared to face the big breakfast in the morning.
We arrived in Echuca at lunchtime. Jenny and Sharon headed out to the supermarkets to stock up on more food for our planned houseboat cruise before we headed down to the houseboat moorings to load up. I’m surprised the boats were still floating by the time all the grog and food was stored away. Steve, Andrea, Ally and Ben arrived around seven so, along with the McCrackens, we headed up to the Shamrock Hotel for dinner where the rest of the McCracken crew arrived to join us for dinner. Then it was back home to sleep on the houseboats to depart Saturday at 8.30 am
We decided that we were going to be brutal in our assessment of where we will be travelling from now on. Jenny has given up on the really rough outback tracks after we finally worked out that it was the corrugations that wrecked our batteries (broken plates). That still leaves the vast majority of Oz available to us but it means that we can cut back on what we carry, which in turn means that we can reduce our weight and therefore running costs.
To this end we have decided that one spare tyre is sufficient and that we could leave the extending ladder home if we installed a fixed, lightweight ladder on the side of the vehicle. We have to be able to get to the roof for maintenance/repairs to the solar panels and additionally it will provide a bit of a photography platform. So now we just have to get back on the road after this year’s sad events.
Can’t wait till the new year.
A rather late update to our progress on the electrical situation with the motorhome. After replacing the fridge, the freezer and the solar controller things were looking up. The batteries were charging fully and the solar system was maintaining the power while just the freezer was running. As soon as I introduced any other load the system would fall over. I had bought a battery tester online and the one that I got measured cold cranking amps – not the best way to measure deep cycle batteries. In any case it said the batteries were fine but I was starting to have my doubts so I bought another battery tester that applied a known load (100 amps) to the battery and measured the response. It cost me a grand total of $24 which would have saved me a fortune if I had bought it first. The test showed that there was a faulty cell in one battery and that the other was getting towards the end of its life (which only figures as it had been carrying most of the load for who knows how long). I ended up replacing both batteries and slightly reduced the amount of storage (270 Ah compared to 300 Ah) to improve charging time. This seems to have done the trick with the fridge and freezer running on hot days without fully depleting the batteries. My tests showed that we still had 70% capacity following a hot, overcast day.
Only on the road trialling will tell us the true story so I guess we will wait until then for real confirmation.
Having returned home its time for our usual review of the motorhome’s performance. We’ve reached the conclusion that we probably won’t be doing any more of the real rugged off road tracks in the future so we are going to alter our setup to suit.
This means removing the things we are unlikely to need in future (like the Max Trax used to get out sandy or muddy situations). We are also removing the second spare wheel, the tyre is blown anyway and as we will probably spend the majority of our time on bitumen we don’t really need the second wheel. We are also removing the hand winch and the bungee straps. I’ve disconnected the HF Radio so no VKS737 rescues anymore.
In addition to these changes I have to go through all the little equipment failures and some of the more important ones (both rear shock absorbers are stuffed). Then I’ll rethink the layout of the under bed storage.
Well all good things must come to an end and so it is with our holiday. After 13,050 kilometres, 1686 litres of fuel at an average cost of $1.49 litre, 20 nights at caravan parks and 28 free camps we have returned home. We saw some amazing stuff including the light show at Uluru, got eaten by mosquitoes at Kakadu, ate fresh fish at Karumba and partied most nights (well as much as old people party).
Thanks to our fellow travellers for their company, to Bronny for looking after our Molly so well and for Lyn for keeping an eye on the house.
Until next year …
What is it with New South Wales and cold mornings? Minus 3.5° this morning, more frost on the vehicles. We only had a short morning’s drive this morning – into Wodonga for a farewell cuppa.
As we returned to our vehicles we noticed coolant under The Turtle. Fortunately RACV Total Care came to the rescue and they diagnosed a faulty water pump, so the Willies are having an unplanned extended break in Wodonga. Every cloud has a silver lining!
Oh man, was it cold last night! Minus 6° overnight and it was still minus 2.5° when I was cooking the porridge outside this morning. Still, it meant we had a lovely sunny morning.
Headed south through Young then across to Gundagai (and The Dog On The Tucker Box). From there we headed to Woomargama for our last free camp this year with the Willies. Its been a great trip, home in a couple of days.
Well was last night cold or what! The outside temperature dropped to minus 6° and inside the van it dropped to 2°! Good thing we had put an extra blanket on and donned the thermals before heading to bed. We woke up to sunny skies and set out on our adventure for today. First visit was to the Borenore Caves south of Molong. Great caves to explore and we spent an hour or more going through the different caverns (self guided)
From there we headed down to the Historic Village of Cargo for lunch then onto Canowindra and the Ages of Fishes Museum. A really awesome display of fossilised fish which you can reach out and touch. Its amazing to feel the skin texture of a species that lived (and died) millions of years ago. I never thought I would be so impressed by fossils. I highly recommend it to anyone passing that way.
Left Moree after a freezing night – we even had to forego the usual evening drinks because there was such a bitter breeze. It dropped to minus 0.5° this morning but the sun was out as we made tracks south.
We headed south down the Newell Highway then onto the Mitchell Highway, pulling in to tonight’s stop 3o kilometres south of Wellington. The sun’s out and its a bit breezy. We’re hoping the breeze dies down so we can have a fire and drink tonight.
