Darwin to Crookwell. Settling in to travel

Mataranka has been our home for 7 months of this year. Travel mode is very different to our living set up. We sprawl out into the annex and except in really hot weather live outside the van most of the time.

 

Just about ready to hook up

So all the extra luxuries get put away and we live, still in quite luxurious circumstances, but with less.
Things need to be locked down. This we know. Or I thought we did. Someone, probably me, didn't look down closer to floor level before we locked the door and left Mataranka. Oh yes all the overhead lockers were shut. But every drawer had pushed open. Lucky nothing fell out..........So I'm out of practice.





Van all packed up for travel

 



 


K had an attack of the funnies and left these pegs on the back of the van. They are still there 6 days later.

Good quality pegs still on the line 6 driving days later

For the first time we travelled in convoy. The silver Ford sedan is going to be left in the east somewhere....still deciding where. While it is handy to have two cars with two workers the sedan is not really suitable for travel to many of the places we work. So K drove the ute towing our house and I followed behind. It is a bit strange watching your house travel down the road ahead.


My home disappearing over the rise

I don't drive at night. K loves night driving and is often the only caravan tower on the road after dark. So he has spent 6 days and more than 3500 kms pushing the Ute and caravan up to 95km/hr and I had the sea anchors out keeping the Ford below 100.

Still nothing beats pulling up in a road side parking spot and cooking in your own kitchen and sleeping in your own bed. And using your own shower.

Nothing like your own bed

Saw some spectacular scenery even though this trip was more like a race than a leisurely holiday.

Might post those pictures tomorrow.

We are settled on the farm. Its cool and wet. And I have to drive up to the gate to get phone, so I might be sitting in the car a lot.  Baby lambs in abundance around here. Pictures of them later too.

View from our camp on the farm.

Baby has not arrived yet so we are in time to mind the farm during the event.



Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

Mr. Fix It battles the Ants

Mr Fix It is right into the final maintenance tasks before we leave next Saturday. He has already worked on the air conditioner but this morning early, before it got too hot to be on the roof he dived into the bowels of the machine to fit a new soft start unit.  This will allow the air-con to build up power as it starts instead of it banging on at full power  as it cycles. This is not a technically accurate description but, as he is up on the roof still I’m not yelling up at him get a better one, so that will have to do.  But the net effect of this is supposed to be two fold. The massive jolt to the van as the compressor starts should eliminated and it should run on our generator if needed. Not that we plan to do that much but it would be nice if that were possible even for an hour on really hot outback travel nights.

But the technical description is not the real topic of this blog.





Mr Fix It On the roof of the caravan



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m inside going through cupboards. K Is clomping on the roof of the van. I hear  mutterings and thumping.  Drill noises. Louder conversations with passers-by. (Staff are all fascinated by what happens at the Ferg’s camp.) I have a policy of ignoring all noises not directed to me, although I keep an ear out for any sound that might indicate a slide or fall just in case.

“Jolly things” I hear.

Now…. the word jolly uttered by my husband is a sure indication that disaster has struck. In fact the whole family know that a sentence containing jolly twice, followed by a huff is the equivalent of anyone else’s very loud swearing.

Realising that something is seriously wrong I rush outside. “Something up dear?”

“Jolly ants,” he says. “Throw me up the surface spray.”

Spraying noises. Sweeping noises. Ant carcasses flying of the roof. A huff or two and all is well.  Ants disaster of epic proportions averted.

I blogged early on about ants. K says they were in every nook and cranny of the air-conditioner except the fans he had cleaned last week. All over the mother board, under the seals and everywhere. How did they get in? Through the tiny space left around the power cord! And while this is an amusing story, the little insects were pretty close to shorting out the motor and in the kind of heat we get here, that would have been a disaster.

Ants vanquished, the cover goes back on the Air-conditioner.

All good now

 

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

 

Getting Ready to Travel: Fixing and sorting

With only a week to go before we up anchor and sail away south and then east, the fix and sort routine is in full swing. I was going to say sort and throw away routine, but with Mr. Fix It around the fixing is more common than the tossing.

Some serious maintenance on the water system was completed today. We had a very annoying leak that dripped water under the van and sometimes caused leaking into the cupboard under the sink. While the local wild life really enjoyed the cool damp spot to nest on a hot day, this state of affairs could not be allowed to continue.  The diagnosis of  a combination of lime build up in all the connections and the hot water service, as well as worn out hoses,  meant that today K spent an hour alternately wriggling into the corner cupboard and sliding under the van to clean, tighten and de-lime everything in sight.

He has also pulled the fan apart and cleaned it, de-limed the showerheads and climbed up on the roof and cleaned  the solar panel.

Meanwhile I have been sorting and moving the electric appliances to their travel homes and pulling out the things that don't require us to be hooked up to 240 volts. Of course we can still use some things on the inverter, so the coffee machine stays on the bench for morning kick starts. I have dragged out the 12 volt chargers for phones and computers, put away the glass oven and given away the electric toaster I have not used at all this year. We have one of those wire camping toasters and I prefer it.

The electric kettle might go the same way as the toaster since the old camp kettle with the three times repaired whistling lid works well.

The glue and other repair essentials are sitting on the table and bits and pieces are getting wiped and repaired as they are put away. New box for the sewing kit, sort the fuses back into sizes and tape the lid, charge the batteries for the torches, throw out chipped mugs......

The first aid kit looks like a bomb hit it and there are a couple of out of date medications and creams, open boxes of dressings and stuff. I will buy replacements tomorrow. This is one thing we never mind spending on.

You may have noticed that I do take a swipe at K for keeping things, but I have to confess that the bathroom storage, which is entirely my domain, is in a very sorry state. Old makeup, dried up nail polish, products with  scents  I have never have and never will wear and general debris. I am ashamed. Big throw out needed.

The camp looks like a herd of feral pigs ran through it. Things half packed up and laying every where.

Time for a snack. Fruit and nuts I  think.

 Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move