Wednesday 4th February 2004

The day started out very nicely with the sun shining and then improved even further to become a beautiful day, even enough warmth to get a bit of a sweat up while working. (Have to put a stop to that - working I mean!)

It's almost NCD (New Caravan Day) so today was spent removing all the additional fittings that I had previously added to our current Heritage Pop Top. This entailed crawling under the van with spanners and cutters etc. Unfortunately 'One of us' was watching so the 'other one' couldn't get an additional siesta under the van. Everything is now piled up beside the van, waiting for the new one to pull into the same bay when we pick it up, then comes the problem of trying to fit it on the new one. Not everything is the same so there may be need to make a few modifications when the time comes.

Of course the most time was taken sitting in a telephone box listening to the 'hold' music whilst arranging the insurance change over and also adding a little more length onto the space allocated to us on the car ferry 'Spirit of Tasmania', which although they were completely full, they did make enough extra to squeeze the additional metre or so on board. (at additional cost naturally)

Later in the afternoon we went to the Badger Creek Weir, which is only about two or three kilometres up the creek from where the caravan park is. There is a very good picnic and BBQ area below the Weir, but unfortunately the gates were locked so we couldn't get to the Weir itself. The trees and bush around the creek is just magnificent, very much like a rain forest with so many ferns and lush green undergrowth that has that wonderful smell of de-composing leaf and tree matter. 'One of us' doesn't like the smell to much, however the other one loves it as it reminds him of the jungles he was in many years ago.

We returned to the van after the visit to Badger Weir to settle down for our last night in the old new caravan (7 months old) and get ready for a busy day tomorrow as we pick up the new new caravan.

Due to the caravan change over, it may not be possible to complete and upload the web page and update the details on the index page, so if not, we will return the next day (Friday).

Thursday 5th February 2004

Well we made it.... It has been a very hectic day as we had to complete the preparation of our old caravan for trading in and then take it into Bayswater where we were picking up the new one.

It was a hot day for Melbourne and we had to transfer all our belongings out of the old van into the new one. We didn't know that we had so much stashed away, we found some things that we forgot we had and also some things that we may never use. It took the best part of three hours to make the move and that was without lining cupboards or organising in proper places, we still have that to do over the next couple of days.

After a run through of the equipment on the new caravan we hooked up and set off back to Badger Creek Caravan Park. The Nissan Patrol towed it with ease, although it did notice it was behind on a couple of the steep hills we had to cross over.

We are now set up with the bed made, but a lot of work to do in the next couple of days. As it is now 6.25 pm, we have to upload the website very shortly so will provide more information on our 'new home' tomorrow..

Friday 6th February 2004 - (Bryant Van Dijken's 8th Birthday)

After yesterday's effort of picking up the new caravan in the heat and humidity, today was a much more laid back time and not a whole lot was achieved.

We did have some problems with the van last night when we went to use the hot water taps... Look Ma, no hot water! After ensuring that the hot water system was on and finding that the hot water was in fact 'HOT', we still couldn't get the hot water out of the taps, even when turned to straight hot water it flowed cold. This called for some crawling around under the van to see what plumbing was under there and after a while, working out that there was a temperature regulator that mixed some cold water with the hot water to reduce the chances of scolding. It didn't appear to be working. A few strikes with a hammer didn't help it so there was nothing we could do until morning.

At about 9.am we contacted the service section of Bayswater Caravans and described the problem. The checked with Jayco Factory who said it could not be that regulator, however we continued to suggest it appeared to be the area causing the fault. The Service people drove out to the caravan at Badger Creek (about 30 km) and brought a replacement regulator, fitted it and 'Hey Presto' all was working as it should. ("Never happened before" they said.)

Other than that we have one light globe not working but the light fitting needs replacing they say, and two draw catches need fixing. All this will be done when we pass by their yard on Monday of Tuesday to pick up the annex walls that were not finished when we picked up the caravan.

After all that we haven't done any sight seeing today and may not get much more in until Monday or Tuesday.

Saturday 7th February 2004

Well, this is were I spent most of my day, under the caravan, however after all that, we have finally installed all the pipes and tubes that were under the previous van. Because this van is over 6 feet longer and the chassis was slightly different from the last one, there was a lot of alterations to be made to the long tubes that hold the water and drain pipes (I miss my shed at times like this). Fortunately we brought most of our tools to work on it and they came in very handy. The external fittings are now completed with the exception of getting two bolts for the additional jockey wheel that is to be fitted to the front of the van.

We are very happy with our new caravan at this time and everyone else seems to be pretty impressed with it as well. The days work took longer to complete than expected, but part of that may be due to the amount of people that stopped and wanted to talk about the van and then of their experiences with caravans. All very friendly and interesting, but it does take up time.

The next job is the Computer, it needs to be set up so that it will stay in one place and not move when we travel. Also the monitor will need fixing in a permanent place that is out of the way of normal movement in the van. we need a few bits for that so if Pam is a good girl I may take her back to Knox City Shopping Centre on Monday.

Hopefully we will get into the sight seeing mode again in the next two or three days and have more interesting images to show and talk about. Maybe the Mornington Peninsula will be our next stop for the few days before we head off to Tasmania.