Sunday 29 April 2012

April 23 - April 25 Paradise Beach, Victoria


The day has finally arrived!! Monday 23rd April. We stayed at mum’s place overnight to make sure we were well rested and left the trailer at Keith’s place as he let us use his garage for security.
Jay let me sleep in a little, so I felt as though I was on the back foot as I had planned on making lunches and still had to do a run to the shops! We left Glen Iris at about 11am, which was a bit later than we planned. By the time we loaded the bikes onto the trailer and changed the kids, it was 1pm.


We were on the road just in time…..for the rain!!
 
With our goal for the night being Paradise Beach south of Sale, we just drove until we arrived. We left that rain band behind, only to set up with the rumbling of thunder from a southerly band heading our way. The decision to put our big tarp over the whole set up was unspoken. Thank goodness Jay decided to buy it before we left! With two and a bit days of pretty constant rain, we had no leaks and were also quite warm.
As we were fairly well tent bound, we took full advantage of sorting through things again. I wasn’t happy with the way the kitchen was organised and went through it again. I found it very difficult to decide on things I would need to cook whilst on the road and now feel as though I’ve whittled the utensils and equipment down to things I’ll use regularly.
Paradise Beach was recommended to us by several people and also seemed good from the camping guides, websites and apps we used. One of our resources mentioned mosquitos. OMG we should have listened!!! They are FIERCE!! Poor Matilda was covered in them at one point while we were setting up. They were into everything! Fortunately, we seem to have come out of that experience relatively itch-free.
During the breaks in the weather, we would venture down to the beach. Paradise Beach is part of 90 Mile Beach. Matilda had her first beach experience here and had a ball!



We drove 7km west of Golden Beach to see the Trinculo wreck, though the weather and sea have taken their toll. There’s not much left!


Big Boo was happy to be at the beach again. She did an excellent job in her role as security, letting us know when people were nearby. 

We decided to pack up the bulk of our belongings on the night of 25th April to try to get away as quickly as possible in the morning. This is our storage box fully loaded. Believe it or not, it's actually pretty easy to find things! Having bought the sensational Aussie-made Drifta kitchen with return (DPOR), the matching storage box was high on the list of things we wanted, but just wasn't absolutely essential for us to be able to travel. After talking to Jason at Aussie Jay's, he sold us this storage box as an ex-demo for a fantastic price and we just had to buy it! We spent a lot of time anguishing over the extra money to buy the box and are really pleased we did. No more piling stuff on the ground and waiting until the tent's packed. Now we can pack things straight into the trailer as we go. Having the food at the back makes the pantry relatively easy access and can be pushed out of the way when not needed.

The morning dawned overcast but dry and we packed up as quickly as possible as the mosquitoes were just impossible. Glad to be on the road, we were aiming for Moruya though would be happy to get to Eden.

Friday 20 April 2012

We've left Warragul and spending the weekend saying final farewells






The car and the trailer is packed and we are out of our house in Warragul.
We need a little more time over the weekend to sort the trailer and the car out as far as packing it goes.
When your moving house you move A to B but when your travelling you need to load the trailer ad car and always have stuff left over and so a few trips to the Salvo's was needed.
On top of the car in the roof basket is my motorcycle gear, Sunday best and formal job interview clothes and shoes, the kids pram and the tag along skateboard, and a nappy bucket.
We have a long handled shovel which attaches via the Quickfist holders.
In the car we have a half shelf unit (poor man's home build) made out of 18mm MDF .
Instead of a slide out drawer we have another plastic storage container that has Lil's Uni books and the toiletries and swimming gear. On top is the 3-way fridge which plugs into the 12v for travelling.
Then we have Boo's bed and, of course, Boo.
There is an Anderson plug on the back to charge the CT while travelling and keep the batteries topped up.

Thursday 19 April 2012

Last night in our house.

The camper is packed, the fridge is packed, the roof luggage is loaded. Lil is busy cleaning stuff and I've been loading the car and camper.
We are hoping to have a little space left over which I doubt will happen.
Moving house is easy compared to getting rid of everything.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Saturday 7 April 2012

Leaking exhaust

Just when we thought everything on the car had been sorted, we thought we'd investigate what we thought was a small exhaust leak. This is what we found....




So, now looks like a trip to an exhaust place to replace/repair the catalytic converter! We just need the planets to align and all higher beings smiling on us so nothing else goes wrong with the Jack!!

Lil :)

Sunday 1 April 2012

Crazy busy and pretty successful weekend!

It has been my job to try to sell as much as possible before we leave, so I made the decision to hold a garage sale. Last week I also came across an advertisement for a car boot sale in town and decided that would be a good way to sell some things with higher exposure and advertise the garage sale for the next day. How wrong I was!! The market was an absolute flop!! I think I sold more than anyone else there and I made just under $50! I took quality items to try to encourage people to come the next day to the garage sale as well...I think that plan worked well, as I saw a few of the same faces.

Roll on Sunday and I opened the gates to a couple of people waiting...I was feeling pretty positive (one of Jay's frequent comments to/about me is that I'm ever the optimist!). Jay took Hamish to fit a storage system in the back of the car, while Matilda, Boo and I tried our hand at sales. There were several garage sales on yesterday, but I think we were the only one near us on today. I think that worked in our favour as we had a pretty constant stream of people until around 11:30. Quite a few items sold and I met some more lovely people...I'm going to miss living around here!

There is still a lot of clothing and toys left...things I thought would sell well, but didn't. All is not lost, though, as I think I'll try for one last ditch effort on our last weekend in Melbourne. I'm thinking that combining our stuff with some from mum and maybe my sister may work out really well for us! Anything that doesn't sell will be taken away by a charity afterwards. Fortunately, much of the work I've done with pricing and sorting can be easily transferred straight over to mum's, so it shouldn't be quite so much of a head cave!!

Lil :)