1770 - The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

Left home this morning for 1770 with grand plans of checking out all the "Off Grid" components of the van. We fell at the first hurdle.

For some reason (probably the gods) items on the right side of the van i.e. fridge and hot water system failed to operate on gas. BUGGER. The left side, stove and BBQ worked a treat.

BUT - with no fridge that meant moving to a powered site to keep the beer and wine cold, oh and the food. Solar panel trials will have to wait till we get home.

On the plus side the van and Amarok went brilliantly on the way up and as you can see the view from the front yard is not too shabby.

And - I think I mentioned the BBQ worked fine. Pizza on the BBQ - I'm awaiting a call from Master Chef.

While all did not go according to plan this is not a bad way to finish off the day. When life gives you lemons make limoncello.

So = All is not lost. We have 3 more days here to try and rectify the minor issues and if all else fails the van is booked into Bundaberg New Age for it's first service on the way home.

At the very least we are not sitting at home watching TV and 1770/Agnes Waters is a tough place to be.

Plenty of time to fix all ills and still get away on the big trip by the end of February.

Fingers crossed.

On the plus side 1770 is not a bad place to spend some time and a huge plus for our trip is the performance of the BBQ. Roast lamb last night. It's obvious we won't starve on our way around. :)

So.. This morning we will have another attempt at getting the gas to work on the right side of the van and then we are taking a sight seeing trip to Gladstone.

Stay tuned..

Everything is coming together

Picked up the new van today...

Spending 3 nights on the Gold Coast before heading home. Currently thunderstorms, high winds and hail forecast. Should be able to find any leaks no problem :)

A week or so to do some more packing and then off to 1770 to give all the free camp gear a test.

The story so far....

Many years ago it was the dream to buy a van and travel around this great country of ours. As usual life got in the way of these plans and not until a year or 2 ago did the bug resurface.

One day Leonie found a van. The mighty Penguin. Great fun and enough to whet the appetite.

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Then came the 16ft New Age.

Went out to buy a hat and ended up with this little gem (that's a whole other story).

We took this van to The Birdsville and Betoota Races and had a ball. This trip demonstrated to us that this was a lifestyle we would like to pursue.

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To cut a long story short on Monday we pick up our new van that we have had built to our specs. An 18ft New Age Manta Ray Adventurer Off Roader.

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After 3 vans in less than 2 years we are almost ready to go. Shake down cruise to 1770 for a week to check everything out and then we are off.

We have a broad idea where we want to go - South West from home to Port Augusta SA, Up the centre tp Darwin, across to Broome, down the west coast, across the Nullabor and home (maybe). All the above is COVID reliant of course. Other than that the only thing we have locked in is our stay first night. A winery that does wood fired pizzas and allows free camping on site. After that your guess is as good as ours.