Sunday 27 January 2013

0006 Queensland January Cyclone - Updated 2.2.13

WELL !!  I never expected to write about a cyclone in my blog, but probably easiest way to get the photos and news to you !!  After all the record heat and humidity of the past couple of weeks, Cyclone Oswald swept down the coast of Queensland this week, causing chaos as it came south. Although now downgraded to "just" a tropical storm, it is still bringing high winds and lots of rain. 

Monday 21 January 2013

0005 Working on Troopie (Updatd 9.2.13 - Success - And Disaster !)

I used my trip down to Victoria over Christmas as a first trial of Troopie, to see what needs to be done to make her totally suitable for long trips, like to Alaska and S America.  Having recently done the long trip in the Lotus, I know very well what kind of weather I can expect, and I also know what makes such a trip easier. The primary thing in the vehicle is ensuring you have sufficient storage space, especially for all the little bits and pieces that might otherwise get lost, and that the things you need quickly or frequently are easily available.  So during the trip to Victoria I kept a piece of paper and pen beside me, and was frequently jotting down ideas, and things that needed doing, or at least considering.  By the time I got back home, my list had some 40 items listed to look at !!   I will list some of the things I am doing to the van on an ongoing basis, so will keep this post live, just add in more items as I go.

Sunday 20 January 2013

0004 Melbourne to Gold Coast

Janet and I left Melbourne in the morning of 4th January, and headed towards our good friends Jos and Tony up in Yackandandah, near the NSW border.  They live on a scenic property, and son Jonathan and his partner Kate now run the farm and have their own house on the property. Horses are their hobby, but at the moment they are running some dairy cattle on a farm about 10 kms down the road, so it is early mornngs and late evenings on the milking front !
To get to Yack, I wanted to go back through the Great Dividing Range because there are some great campsites up there.  The forecast was for hot weather (in the 40's C +) coming in, so I thought the high country would be a good place to be, so we set off east to Bairnsdale, and then north up the Omeo Hwy.

Saturday 19 January 2013

003 Victoria over Christmas

I arrived in Victoria by car on the 23rd December, while Janet had flown down a couple of weeks earlier to stay with friends.  Initially we house-sat a friends home in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn for a few days, which gave us a good central location.  I had noticed on the way down from Brisbane that the second battery that is fitted to Troopie to run the fridge and camping lights etc didn't seem to be holding a charge - By the second night on the way down, at Carcoar Dam, the battery was totally flat by the morning, and the fridge, which I was using as a freezer and was runing at about -20 Deg C, was up to plus 4 deg, and all Trooper's frozen food supplies for the trip were in danger of thawing !  Fortunately when driving, the battery was charging, so during the day the freezer temp was fine - Just no good when I was stopped.  And then, on arrival in Melbourne, when I went to plug into mains power, I found I had left the special cable behind in Queensland !!!   Uh oh, Senior camping moment !!  So here I was, on Christmas Eve, in a strange area, with no internet connection at the house (they didn't know their password !!), no Yellow Pages, and needing a new cable, and someone to look at my battery to prevent my food thawing !!!  Help !!!

002 Queensland to Victoria for Christmas

Having bought Troopie, I planned to drive down to Melbourne for Christmas, taking Trooper the dog.  Janet was already down in Melbourne as she had flown down a couple of weeks earlier to spend time with some of her friends, so I made a few minor adjustments to Troopie and set off south on December 20th, with a plan to be in Melbourne for lunch on the 22nd for a birthday celebration lunch for family friend Tab Stamp, who is the same age as our eldest, Damien.

Saturday 12 January 2013

0001 Selling Winnie and buying Troopie

Following on from my Alaska blog, I have decided that while I am preparing Troopie the Amazing for her trip to the Americas in 2014, I will run an in-between blog as it is the simplest way to let anyone who for some stupid reason might be interested in what is going on with my plans, and also is the easiest way to post pics of everything so that people can go and see them instead of me having to email pics to everyone. So this is the in-between blog !