Thursday, July 1, 2010

Day 3

So much for our nice weather as during the night it started to rain although not too hard or long. Woke early and was on our way shortly after 7am with the roads wet. Followed the Canarvon Highway north to Roma where I tried to get the diff seal replaced and when that wasn't going to happen we booked ourselves into Canarvon George a day earlier and pressed on. Same as the previous few days Gabi made lunch in the morning and we ate while driving and made good time. After Injune the Highway became pretty narrow in sections which made encounters with the road trains a bit more interesting. Found the turn off to the Nat Park without trouble but wasn't long before I was wondering if they had incorrectly listed the camp grounds as suitable for caravans as we got to our first creek ford. The road deteriorated and the creek crossings didn't improve but we got through without incident to find the campground full of quite a few caravans - some quite big. Weather was nice 21 with clear skies so after booking in we set up camp and then proceeded to set up the annex. I soon realized that I had left one of the roof poles back at home but thought I could work around it. We were in the process of pegging out the last lines when we realised we had the annex upside down. Stop for a coffee and then dismantle it and reassemble the right side up - looked ok even with the missing pole. Booked ourselves in for a spit roast meal tommorrow night. Attended an information session from a guide at 5pm and then promptly booked ourselve into a guided night walk looking for Glider possums and also a guided tour of the lower george.
Back to camp for dinner and then it started raining. Later in the evening I find the annex is holding water so I have to empty it without soaking myself much to Gabi's amusement.

Day 2

Another big day on the road today. From Parkes NSW this morning we've managed another 750km's today to get us to St George in QLD. Canarvon George is about 450km's away so we are a day ahead of our booking but that was what I was hoping to achieve as they have vacancies then and it means more time to explore the gorge. The caravan has been behaving itself reasonably well so far although it was a bit unstable at first and needed repacking. The old car on the other hand has started leaking oil from the rear diff seal. I was able to buy a new diff seal in Moree on the way but they couldn't fit it so we'll have to have it fitted that somewhere down the road. Tonight we have a powered site in Kapunda Fishing Camp which isn't a typical caravan park. It's mostly bush camping on an old farm along the river with 2 powered sites adjacent the amenities block of which we have one site. There were more powered sites but they are quite some distance from the toilets. We both had a nice hot shower after setting up the van. It is very quiet here so we like it.

Day 1

Tuesday June 22 and we're on holidays and planning on heading for the tropics!! The original plan was to leave yesterday but it was easier to give ourselves another day to prepare and pack. We want to see Canarvon George Nat Park but bookings are full next week due to school holidays so we could only get bookings earlier which means we have to go straight there. I wasn't sure how long it would take us to get there as its 2000km's from home and we're towing a 20 year old caravan with a 20 year old 4x4 so I booked in Fri - Mon which gives us 4 days at 500km's per day.


I felt pretty good driving today and Gabi had made sandwiches for lunch already so we managed 950km's which put us well ahead of schedule even with a side trip to Bendigo Wool Mill for Gabi. Spent the night in a free truck stop just out of Parkes NSW and even with the trucks rumbling past we slept pretty well. I didn't hear any trucks arrive during the night but there were a lot of them parked around us in the morning!