australia

How big does a caravan need to be for a couple travelling with a dog?

| Chris Riley

You may be wondering just how big a Caravan set up is that would be suitable for a couple with a dog. If you’re considering setting up for caravan travel I guess the answer to that will depend on what the basics are that are necessary for you. Every rig is a compromise of some sort, and every couple has their own set of needs and wants to make living in a caravan enjoyable for them. A bigger rig gives more on board storage space, but it also needs more space to store your van when not in use. You’ll need a substantial vehicle to tow it with, and your fuel economy will be higher than if you can manage with a smaller rig.

A smaller rig is lighter to tow so you won’t need a heavy duty tow vehicle. There won’t be as many cupboards and drawers inside it either so you will have to be economical with what you pack to take away with you. When it’s not in use a smaller van is less cumbersome to store. If you don’t mind the canvas skirt around the top of a pop top caravan, one of these may even fit into your garage, or under your carport.

Think about whether you want an ensuite in your van. We’ve had two caravans with ensuites, and two caravans without. I used to think it was important. But now I’m happier without that extra size and weight behind us when travelling along. We do carry a porta-loo on board, and we manage between caravan parks by having a PTA shower (Privates, tips and armpits). Some people carry a portable shower with them that they set up in a separate shower tent.

Shall I tell you about our rig? Okay, get yourself a cup of coffee and settle yourself into a comfy chair, and I’ll tell you what we manage with now…..

We have a very modest, 15 year old, Coromal Magnum 457, pop top. It’s only 15 feet in length, has two single beds, and it doesn’t have an ensuite. The caravan has been well kept, and didn’t look to have had taking any sort of beating. We only paid $18,000 for it. At the time of purchase we thought our Subaru Forrester would be okay as a tow vehicle, it was legally able to manage the weight of the Magnum. However the 200km trip to bring it home told us how wrong in that assumption we were. The mileage was horrendous. The next week out went the Subaru and in come the vehicle we now tow with, a 2020 Pajero Sports.

Our caravan has air conditioning, but at the moment that’s not working. (The joys of buying an older van, things in it may getting towards the end of their use by date). However, our idea of caravanning isn’t so much to go to different places, but rather to be in perfect weather. (Hence Broome is repeatedly on our winter travel agenda). We’ve been a bit further this year. We went up to Darwin which is hotter, and more humid than Broome. Air conditioning would have been useful up there. However we have two fans, one for at the end of each bed, and the fans together with the great ventilation that a pop top has, meant the van cooled down quickly. When the outside temperature dropped the van cooled down quickly. It wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t unmanageable. Personally I think we’re all getting a little too reliant on things such as air conditioning and heating anyway. I wonder sometimes if we’re losing the ability for our bodies to self-regulate temperature. Never-the-less we will get the air con looked it to see if it can be fixed. If it’s past it’s use by date we’ll think hard before replacing it. I doubt it’s going to get much use, but as it’s housed inside a cabinet, the space it takes up could be better utilised for storage. There are some pretty damn good portable air conditioning units now too. They don’t take up much space, and could travel in the car to be brought out only when needed. Something for us to think about. If any of you reading this already have a caravan and if it has air conditioning, do you use it very much? I’d be interested to know, it may help us make our decision.

The fridge is a 90 litre built in 3 way fridge. It runs very well on gas, but can be temperamental on 240 or 12 volt. A lot of people seem to be replacing their 3 way caravan fridges now with two way compressor fridges. We’re considering doing the same. So, again if any of you reading this have a caravan we’d be interested to hear what type of fridge you have. If you have a compressor fridge do you regret not being able to run it on gas? We have a good battery pack and solar panels. We’ll need to look into it further yet, but we think the battery pack will be sufficient to run both our caravan with a compressor fridge, and our portable Bushman fridge. We’ve been looking at the Bushman 130 litre compressor fridge. Apparently this fridge should fit into the same space as our Dometic 90 litre fridge. That’s a lot more internal fridge space for the same amount of caravan space that the current fridge takes up. Do any of you have a Bushman Fridge? Are you happy with it?

We’re both in our 70s now and as we’ve grown older we find a good nights sleep has become harder to achieve. In a caravan the single beds help, plus they’re easier to make, the bedding is easier to launder, and single beds give a feeling of more space inside the van.

We have a wardrobe between our twin beds that has a cupboard underneath. That’s where we store our porta loo during the day. At night we pull it out and place up the other end of the van, and then we put the dogs bed on the floor between us in front of the wardrobe. At home he sleeps on our bed, but single beds just aren’t big enough. It took a few nights of perseverance to get him to accept the new sleeping arrangements, but he has no problems with it now. The wardrobe has shelves in it rather than hanging space. We use packing cubes, and between the shelves, the overhead cabinets, and the under bed storage we have tons of space for all of our clothes and other stuff.

We’ve also purchased a number of attractive cane baskets which sit on the shelf that goes all around the van above the cabinets. The baskets house our tea towels, bath and beach towels, games, dog grooming gear, and several other bits and pieces. When we’re travelling most of the baskets sit on the beds, with some in a crate on the floor between the beds. When we pull up for a night it takes less than 10 minutes to pop the roof up, unzip the top windows, and put the baskets on the top shelf.

Apart from the lower initial cost of our second hand pop top, and the fact that it fits into our available storage space at home, the thing we really love is how airy it is. It’s a caravan, but the canvas around the top (or the PVC or whatever it’s made of) gives it a bit of a feel of camping. We love that. In our fifth wheeler and full height New Age caravan it took much longer for the van to cool down and for the breeze to blow through taking all the stale air from travelling with it.

That’s basically it for our indoor set up. It’s a small set up, but it’s adequate. There’s plenty of room for two old codgers, all of their gear and their little Labradoodle. We’re comfortable. We do as much of our living outdoors as we can, so our outdoor set up is extensive. For now though this post is already almost long enough to be a book. I’d better tell you about our outdoor set up another day.

Oh – and for any of you interested in how my editing problems are coming along with WordPress. Their AI assistant escalated the issue to their ‘happiness engineers’. Eventually they acknowledged this is a known problem, and they sent me a link to a Jetpack editor. It seems to be working a treat. I do hope they fix the problem though soon. It’s been a problem for years….. Honestly – just how long does it take! I guess companies just never fix errors these days, they’re far too busy trying to move on to bigger and better things.

The costs involved in caravanning

| Chris Riley

In a recent post I mentioned some costs for caravan parks. One of the comments received on that post expressed surprise at the price, thinking that caravanning was a cheap holiday option. Consequently, I did a bit of research.

Firstly you’re going to need a caravan, a tow vehicle, and a few other bits and pieces to make life comfortable. For a small entry level van you’ll likely pay somewhere between $25, 000 & $50,000. A mid range caravan with a few more luxury’s such as air conditioning, standard solar panels, and a small ensuite will be a more expensive. You would expect to be paying somewhere between $50, 000 & $90,000 for one of those. However if you really want to add a bit more size, luxury, or be equipped with a heavy duty van for more self sufficiency, and hard off roading, you’ll need to fork out somewhere between $100,000 & $250,000.

Below (in no particular order) are some of the rigs we’ve had. This is only a few of them. We’ve upsized, and downsized many times over the years. We’ve had tents, camper trailers, caravans, and even a swag. We’ve had small second hand caravans, one new caravan (a New Age Manta Ray), and we’ve had a top of the wozzar second hand fifth wheeler. The fifth wheeler was brilliant, easy to tow, and very luxurious to be in. The swag was cool, absolutely perfect for a few nights camping under the stars, particularly on a dry winter’s day when you could have a fire. And I have to say I loved our first caravan, and I love the one we have now. Both are pop tops, so that canvas top makes them feel airy (almost like tenting, but much more comfortable and convenient), and both were no frills.

Screenshot
Screenshot
Screenshot
Screenshot
Screenshot

You’ll also need to factor in a vehicle that’s up to job of towing whichever van you choose. Your existing vehicle may safely tow one of the smaller vans, but if you choose one of the extreme heavy duty models, or a big luxury caravan you’re going to need to consider something like the big American Rams to handle the weight, or at the very least a Landcruiser. Whatever you do, don’t tow anything above your vehicles towing recommendation. Should you come to grief, you most likely wouldn’t be covered by your insurance.

On top of the initial outlay for your van and vehicle, you’ll also need to set it all up. Towing mirrors, weight distribution systems and vehicle brake controllers will cost somewhere between$4000 & $9000. Your running costs will add a further $3000 – $8000 a year. That’s to cover registration, servicing and repairs, and the extra fuel needed to tow your caravan.

Then you’ll maybe also want outdoor chairs and tables, something to cook on outdoors, ground sheets, and possible even a gazebo.

Caravan park fees for a powered site can be anywhere from $25 – $125 a night. (Yes you read that correctly – if you want to stay in a much sort after area in peak holiday season, overlooking water, $125 a night would be the going rate). The $25 nightly fees are for out of the way places, usually inland, and not usually places that are on people’s holiday itinerary. Of course if you are set to be completely self sufficient, and you have a rig that’s capable of taking down some rugged roads, you may be lucky enough to find a lovely spot that costs you absolutely nothing, and you may be lucky enough to have it all to yourself. There are also lots of places that are organised camp grounds with either no, or very little facilities that have small nightly fees. (Some of these are now getting expensive to now. Expect to pay anywhere between $10 – $60 each night, depending on how popular the place has become).

We’re currently staying at a modest caravan park in Broome. I’ll show you around the park at a later stage. It’s a lovely park, not too big, and nice and shady. It doesn’t have a pool, nor a kids playground (advantage being, not many kids here belting around on their bikes, or throwing a tantrum because mum or dad wants them do something they don’t want to do). We’e here for full calander month, on a small powered site at a cost of $2418. We love the park, and of all the parks we’ve stayed in in Broome, this is the one we’ll be coming back to for sure. Again, I’ll tell you why in a later post.

If you were under the assumption that caravanning is a cheap holiday, I wonder if I’ve just disillusioned you. If you use your caravan often though, it does cover the costs of the initial outlay. If you then compare the costs of three months away per year in your caravan as opposed to three months away in paid accommodation, you would end up in front most likely in the caravan. I think most regular caravanners though would agree with me though when I say that caravanning isn’t about the costs (although that probably does enter into it). It’s a lifestyle choice. For us, it’s about sleeping in our own bed, not one that’s been slept in by 1000 other people. It’s about being outdoor under our annex, cooking our own food, having our own vehicle with us, and being able to holiday with our dog.

It’a about being in Broome for much of the winter, and being able to drive right up to the water’s edge on an outgoing tide in our own vehicle. It’s about having our drinks in that vehicle and maybe even dinner, having a long walk on the beach , and then sitting with a drink as we watch the sun set. It’s about being able to get to our happy place.

Mr Tilly hasn’t always taken to caravanning. But now he loves it. It’s such a pleasure to be in our happy place once again, and now with a pesky puppy who also seems to be enjoying it as much as we do.

Apologies for all the errors in this – I’ve tried everyone’s suggestions, and I’ve been onto the AI assistant that WordPress has. None of it works, and in fact it’s gone from bad to worse. Everytime I try to insert my cursor into text now for a revision the whole block highlights. If I carry on, it deletes the whole block. I’ve managed to save a couple of blocks but only just, by closing down before it has a chance to auto save. Some of the errors change the context of what I’m trying to say altogether. I have the choice of re-typing the whole thing or publishing as is. SO BLOODY FRUSTRATING. As this is a ‘known fault’ the AI assistant on WordPress has escalated the issue for human assistance. I have no idea how long the take to address the issue. Bearing in mind that I’ve contacted them myself long, long ago, and no doubt others have contacted them also many times, I’m not holding my breath for any help in the near future. I’m not going to re-type my whole blog, and I’m resenting the fact that I may have to learn how to deal with typing this all up in Pages first (as others seem to do to get around these editing issues). I want to stand up for what I think is my right – that is to be able to edit what I write in my WordPress draft. I pay for that right. I’m going to be WordPress’s squeaky wheel. I’m going to be pestering them daily, maybe even hourly…. They’re going to hate me!

Broomes Gateway Caravan Park

| Chris Riley

I don’t know why we make travel plans, we never stick to them. We did get up to Darwin to see our son and Daughter-in-law, but we stayed three weeks rather than the planned five. Also we had planned to return home via the Red Centre, but instead have back tracked and are now back in Broome again.

We had a caravan park booked in town as from 28th, which at the time of writing this, is today. Arriving three days earlier than that we decided we’d give the Broome Gateway Caravan park a go. It’s nearly 30 kms out from town, and they don’t have powered sites. However, it’s around half the price of any of the sites in town, and it gets great reviews so we thought we’d give it a go.

The sites, as promised, are really spacious. There’s plenty of shady trees on most of the sites, and plenty of sunny space left for charging solar panels. Having plenty of solar panels and a power pack, we don’t need to have a powered site as long as we can get our panels in the sun for most of the day. We had our caravan set up, the annex partially set up beside it, and beside that a 2.4 x 2.4 shade house. There was a small grove of trees at the side of our shade house, probably around 3 metres in width with about 5 trees, and there would have been a similar amount of space on the other side of our caravan. For anyone used to caravan parks you may think I’m exaggerating. I’m not, I wish I’d taken more photos to prove it. The sites are amazingly big.

The ablution blocks are equally as spacious. Each toilet, shower, and hand basin is in its own very large, separate room. The rooms have painted concrete floors, and the walls are concrete block and tin. The showers are hot, and whilst the toilets and hand basins are stained an outback sort of orange colour, it’s still clear that they are spotlessly clean.

During the three nights we were there, there were two ‘fire watch’ alerts issued for an area that included the caravan park. Fortunately the fire was to the west of us, and the wind was blowing in a Westerly direction, so the fire was travelling in the opposite direction of the caravan park. If the wind had reversed, it may have turned nasty, but all was good. We couldn’t even smell the smoke, despite the fire looking alarmingly close.

We wondered if it would feel too far away from Cable Beach. However, none of the caravan parks in town are right on the beach, so even when staying in town, we usually take our car and drive onto the beach at Gantheame Point. The extra 25 – 30kms seemed to make very little difference really in the scheme of things.

At around 5pm they light a big fire in the communal fire pit at Gateway. The travellers bring along a drink and sit around the fire sharing travel stories and getting to know each other. On the first night we met three other couples who come from the same suburb in Mandurah that we live in. We’d never met them before, amazing!

Screenshot

Today we moved into the caravan park that we booked in town. As I type this I can hear every word my next neighbour says as she talks on the phone, and the noise of traffic going past on the adjoining street has me thinking that Gateway may just end up being our preferred caravan parks for future years. It was so peaceful there comparatively, although the noise of the trucks on the highway at night did carry on the wind from time to time.

To be fair we’ll give it a couple of weeks here before we make any firm decisions for future years. One thing that we certainly can’t ignore though is the cost. If we had stayed for the entire 5 weeks at Gateway the cost would have been a total of $1320. For the same amount of time in town, this particular caravan park, albeit on a powered site, will cost us $2695. That’s less than half the price. Even factoring in a couple of extra tanks of fuel, it’s still at least $1000 less. Most of the caravan parks in town are even more expensive than that. We’re actually in one of the cheaper, no frills parks. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very nice park, with lots of shade, and very clean toilets. There’s no pool though, nor children’s play equipment (we don’t want either of those things anyway). Compared to the space allocated at Gateway, these sites are small. The phrase that comes to mind is ‘crammed in like sardines’. But I guess the owners have to make a living, and there are always a lot of tourists in Broome during the winter months, so there’s a need for caravan parks to fit as many caravaners in as they can. Whether or not we decide to stay at Gateway again in future years, we really did enjoy the space and the serenity there this year, even though it was only for three nights. It had a campground feel to it rather than a structured caravan park full of rules and regulations. Oh – and I haven’t yet mentioned they seem to take great pride in being extremely dog friendly (to friendly dogs). They even have a fenced dog paddock for pooches to run around in off lead. Typing this up, ya know what – and I think you’ll agree with me, I think it’s going to be a no brainer as to where we stay next time we bring the caravan up to Broome! What do you think?

A Broome Fix at last

| Chris Riley

With more than four years since we were last in Broome, the closer we drew to the place, the more our plans for shorter travel days went out the window. With a mixture of plans that went awry due to circumstances beyond our control, along with a growing desire to see the red earth, and turquoise waters that are Broome, we condensed four days of travel into two. It was mid afternoon when we arrived, and getting near sunset by the time we did a quick a set up of the van, and headed down to Cable Beach for the first swim of many at Cable Beach for this trip.

Screenshot

It only took us a few days to change our travel plans. Our plan had been to return home down the Red Centre via Alice Springs, rather than to back track from Darwin covering the same old ground. However, Broome, being a bit like a drug to us, thirteen days just wasn’t going to give us the fix we craved. So back-tracking it is, with another three weeks in Broome on our return from Darwin.

We gave up caravanning because our pooch, Mr Tilly (Tilz) was just so anxious being away from home. Neither he, nor us were enjoying our trips. We had resigned ourselves to short overseas trips leaving him with someone else. However, we missed our road trips, and he was just as anxious being away from us as he was being away from his own home with us. So we tried again with the help of some Prozac from the vet for Tilz. We gave him one Prozac, and he watched the world go by in the caravan park, very chilled out. Wonderful! We cut the next pill in half, and he was still very laid back. We forgot to give him more on that trip, but it only seemed to take the two doses and it was as if he suddenly realised, ‘hey, chilling out and watching the world go by is kinda cool’. And so our trek back into the world of road tripping commenced once again.

He is a different dog now. He travels well in the car, he stays on our allocated caravan site even without a lead, and he rarely barks when anyone walks by. If he’s trying to sleep he occasionally gives a grumbling sort of bark if there’s any noisy people near by, but it’s not a bark that they’d hear. It’s just his little way of saying, ‘hey can I have a bit of peace here please, I’m trying to get some sleep’.

It’s the same when we’re at a the beach. We take a lead with us, but it only goes on him if we see a dog that we don’t trust coming near. When we sit on the beach reading a book he just sits or lays down beside us, watching with interest all the other dogs playing and frolicking at the beach, and watching all the people. He shows no sign of anxiety, just watches the world go by with curious interest. And no Prozac, it only took 1 1/2 pills….. I have to pinch myself sometimes to believe he’s the same dog.

It’s a pleasure to be back in Broome! It’s a pleasure to back to road-tripping! And I never thought I’d be able to say this, but it’s a pleasure to be travelling with our Mr Tilly! An absolute pleasure!

A few extra photos:

These ones are the popular beach, Gantheume Point, a beach that you can drive your car onto and unload your chairs without having to lug them down the steps further up Cable Beach at the more popular swimming beach. It’s important to note whether or not your parking against a rising, or ebbing tide. In the photo below the tide was on the way out, so it was safe to park right down almost at the water’s edge. If any of you are observant enough to notice the dent in the front fender, that happened when we took our car to get new tyres fitted two days before leaving. The tyre place had a stack of tyres that fell onto our car. There wasn’t time to get it repaired before we left home, so their insurance will take care of it upon our return.

Screenshot

And these next photos are the much less populated Reddell Beach. This beach is off a dirt track, and has a step flight of steps thatlead down to the red sandy beach. It’s a good beach for exploring some wonderful rock formations, or to throw in a line and try one’s luck at catching a big fish (no luck for us that day though).

Screenshot
Screenshot

This next one is of the cliffs at Reddell beach as the sun is starting to go down in the sky. As the suns rays lower they hit the red cliffs making them look almost iredescent.

De Grey river to Broome 525 kms

Fuel – 55 litres @$2.62, total $145

Accommodation 13 days at varying daily rates (a weird system that Broome caravan park now uses) $755 for 13 nights. As an aside – we won’t be staying at Broome caravan park when we come back this way again. It’s gone down hill from when we last stayed here. We’re not that fussy, but quite honestly sometimes I feel dirtier after having a shower here than I did before I showered. It’s improved since we arrived, after many complaints, but it’s going to take a lot of gumption and elbow grease to remove the grime that’s built up after being neglected for way too long. The Kimberley is a dusty place, so it’s difficult to keep on top of things. This park used to manage just fine, as do other caravan parks here in Broome. It was taken over by Summerstar some time ago, and I gather that’s when the problems started. Summerstar allocate the amount of time needed for cleaning an ablution block, and I gather that’s a time allocated according to capital city cleanliness without regard for outback conditions. I doubt we’ll be renewing our membership with Summerstar.

Next Stop – Dongara/Port Denison

| Chris Riley

Our next two nights are at the Big 4 Dongara/Denison caravan Park. It’s on the coast, and I think every caravan site has a view out to the ocean, albeit only through the single row of cabins that have the premium ocean front views.

We set up some things on arrival, and had a late lunch. Then finished setting up, and had a drive into the small town of Dongara to get a gas bottle filled. The town may be small but the houses along the shoreline are not. The stature of the houses on the blocks of land with ocean views reflect that main enterprise of the town – Cray fishing. There’s a lot of money to be made from Crays. I think most of the Crays (or lobsters) caught are exported. I don’t mind that there aren’t a cheap supply for visitors, I’m not a great fan of crayfish.

After our short drive we took Tilz for a walk, and found a fish and chip shop. I rarely take a night off from cooking, mainly because I’m one of those control freaks that likes to know what’s in my food. That doesn’t mean I don’t eat my fair share of sugary treats and things like hamburgers or pizza, it just means we tend to make most of them ourselves so as we know what we’re eating. Last night though as the sun was heading down over the Indian Ocean, we thought it might be nice to sit and watch it set as we ate a parcel of fish and chips straight out of the paper. So that’s what we did.

The fish and chips were a bit ordinary, but ok. The view was very tranquil.

Tomorrow we leave for a free overnight camp. It’s been a bit windy here in Port Denison, but it’s pleasant enough.

Caravan park fees for 2 nights $99.50

Laundry – 1 load $5.00

After 4 nights of PTA (Privates, tips, and armpits wash down), the fresh water shower – priceless!

Kms from last camp site at Milligan Island 97km (no fuel needed yet)

Dog Friendly, Flinder’s Bay Caravan Park at Augusta

| Chris Riley

For our first trip away in our little Avan, Georgie Girl, we decided we’d go again to Flinder’s Bay Caravan Park at Augusta. We stayed here only a few weeks ago in our previous Erde Camper trailer, and it was after that trip that we realised that ‘caravanning/camping’ really does put us in our ‘happy place’. That trip inspired us to go back to something that wasn’t canvas, it inspired us to get our little Georgie Girl. (Not that we don’t like canvas, in fact we do, it’s just that canvas is a little harder for two old codgers nearing their 70th birthdays). As you can see from the images below the caravan park is full of beautiful shady trees, with many of the sites having trees around three sides providing both shade and a feeling of privacy.

There’s three caravan parks in town, but during the main season Flinder’s Bay caravan park is the only one that takes dogs. I think during the off season it closes, and then dogs are allowed at Turner’s Caravan Park. I think both parks are council owned.

The park is right on the southern ocean, so the crashing waves provide wonderful background music. Several tracks lead out of the park directly to the ocean for a lovely walk down the rocky foreshore, or for a cooling dip for those brave enough to venture into the cold waters of the Southern Ocean. (Not me – if it’s not 40 in the shade, not much more than my big toes gets near the water). Dogs aren’t allowed on all of the coastline down here, but there is a dog friendly area of the beach at the eastern end of the caravan park. However, currently there are dozens (possibly even hundreds) of toxic Sea Hares washed up on shores of the ocean, and the banks of the river. These creatures are absolutely deadly to dogs, so it’s not wise to let a dog off the lead at the moment anywhere near water in Augusta. If you’ve never seen a Sea Hare, below is an image of 4 together on the banks of the river. Each would be around 20cms in length, and around 10cms across. They look like a huge piece of liver.

Screenshot

A little mobile Ice Cream van that makes delicious real fruit Ice creams is often at Flinder’s Bay. Our first encounter with said Ice Cream van was accidental on our first night here when we walked down the path that led to the beach. Of course, we tried one. Yum! Today’s encounter was much more deliberate.

There are two ablution blocks in the park. Both are more than adequate, and are kept perfectly clean. With Seniors discount the cost for three nights is $145. It’s a lovely park, not pristine, and there’s no jumping pillows, no swimming pools, and no kids adventure playgrounds. It’s a park that feels close, (and is close) to nature. As I type this, our Mr Tilly is lying out under the trees, and there’s lots of little birds flitting all around, the waves are crashing in the background, and I can smell the eucalypt. Tills is happy, we’re happy, and in fact there are a lot of dogs here, and they all seem happy, as do their owners.

The park is about a twenty minute walk to the river. We have walked it, but we prefer to drive into the river picnic area and then walk down the river to the river mouth and back again to our car. It gives us about an hours walk and there’s so much to see on the river. Today we saw pelicans, dolphins, wind surfers, kite surfers, kayakers, swimmers, paddle boarders, and water craft of all types. As we meandered down the shady trees that line the river back we saw huge trees, Hampton’s style grand houses, little old river cottages, and of course, those ugly, deadly Sea Hares.

Augusta is a lovely little coastal town located at the south west corner of Western Australia. It’s where two rivers meet and run out into the ocean, and it’s also where two oceans meet, the Indian, and the Southern Oceans. You can read more about the town here https://lifeofrileyow.com/2019/05/14/augusta-the-small-town-where-two-big-oceans-meet/ It’s only just over an hour’s drive from Busselton where we live, but it’s a very different sort of coastal town. Busselton is a place with calm pristine waters and beaches. Augusta is place with a rugged coastline, and crashing waves. As far as coastal towns go, Busselton and Augusta are both gorgeous places, but they are as different from each other as night is from day.

We go home tomorrow after our three night ‘shake down’ trip. It’s been wonderful. A real pleasure, and we will be back this way again for sure. It’s a lovely caravan park, in an even more wonderful unpretentious little coastal town.

Georgie Girl – the first trip.

| Chris Riley

Having a few days to spare before having to sort out kitchen renovations (that’s another story), we decided we’d take our little Georgie Girl for a bit of a whirl. For our first trip in our little Aliner we headed down to Flinder’s Bay Caravan Park at Augusta in the South West of WA. More about the caravan park and town later…..

We packed up Georgie Girl with clothes and food for three nights and headed down to Augusta. It’s only about an hours drive from home, so a nice distance for a short get away. The town is just gorgeous, very different to Busselton, we love it.

We ensured we had enough Prozac for hyper-vigilant, Mr Tilly, but we forgot to give him one before leaving home. We tied him on his long lead to a tree on our site, and proceeded to set up camp. He lay down in the shade watching us, and watching the world go by. And he stayed happy and contented for the rest of the day. Maybe he’s turned a corner, maybe he’s decided this caravanning/camping caper is worthwhile after all. He was an absolute pleasure, and without any Prozac. Phew! That’s been nearly eight years coming. Below is a photo of him lying under the table like a beached whale, in the dirt, and looking very relaxed.

The van itself goes up very easily. I think it takes less than a minute to push up both sides and to connect the door. For this trip we decided we’d try out the Avan awning which came with the van. We didn’t hold out much hope for it, as most Avan owners seem to prefer using a gazebo. Another pleasant surprise, it went up very easily. We can see we haven’t fitted quite correctly, so later today we’ll try to work out exactly how it goes. It looks like it’ll add a lovely addition to our outside space when we head off to Broome later this year for our longer winter trip, so it’ll be worth nutting out exactly how to get it up correctly.

As you can see the two peaks aren’t aligned correctly. We’ll sort it out. Our plan for when we’re up in Broome during the winter later this year was to use two gazebos, one fully enclosed against the weather and the other open for breezy fresh air, with a sun shade. If the awning works well, we’ll use it for the sun shelter and will still erect one enclosed gazebo to be able to sit outdoors in windy conditions.

The Avan is small, so our intention is to use it basically as just a bedroom, and to transport our gear. We want to get back to outdoor living when away from home, just like it was in the early days when we were in tents. We loved our tenting years, caravanning, though convenient, just isn’t quite the same. So, we’d like to get to somewhere between the two. 

Next came our first disappointment – Paul connected the water, but so far he hasn’t been able to get the pump to work. Perhaps it needs a new pump. Paul tried to work it out yesterday afternoon, but after an hour or two decided that’s a job to be looked at when we get home. We have a tap at our door, so we can get water for the kettle and washing up etc. It won’t be a hardship for three days.

Our van, being 23 years old, doesn’t have a hot water system fitted. Maybe one day we’ll get one fitted, maybe not. Although it was a pleasant convenience in the fifth wheeler and the New Age, not having it doesn’t seem to be a problem at all. In fact, it’s one of those things that makes it feel more like we’re camping.

We both slept soundly last night, and as always when camping, it was an early night. Paul slept on the double bed with Mr Tilly, and I slept on the single (cafe dining converted to single bed). The double bed isn’t big enough for two old codgers and a dog, plus we don’t want to climb over each other when nature calls during the night. At nearly 70 a really good nights sleep is becoming more elusive, so the convenience of our own bed when away from home seems to ensure a better night’s sleep.

We noticed a few drips of water coming from the peak in the roof this morning. There was a lot of condensation over night, but with all the windows opened in the van, we shouldn’t have been getting any inside the van. Maybe the seal needs some attention, another little job that my man will look at when we get home. I’m sure it’s nothing major. Gee, I’m pleased to have a partner that’s a very clever and capable ‘handy man’. I feel so sorry for women who have partner’s that hardly know one end of a screwdriver from the other. Sometimes though I wonder if Paul doesn’t wish he was one of those useless types – he’s always so busy. Part of him loves the busyness, but I’m sure there’s sometimes just a little part of him that just wants to sit down with a good book while someone else does the hard work. As I type this though, he is relaxing with his book. What a pleasure!